Another First Time
by nostalgic-maiden
Summary: .:COMPLETE:. All Sakura ever wanted was to settle down happily with him. But as that dream crashes and burns, a new dream begins to take flight with someone she had never expected. .:Sakura x Sai:.
1. The Beginning of the End

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End**

* * *

"I have a new mission for you," Tsunade announced, as Sakura scribbled away diligently on her side. Looking up, Sakura asked, "What's it going to be, shishou?"

"I'll tell you after you help me get the rest of the team together. I'm sending Team 7."

Sakura's eyes widened, and a bubble of hope formed in her chest. By Team 7, did Tsunade-sama mean…

"And by Team 7, I mean you, Naruto, Sai, and Yamato," Tsunade sternly said, knowing what Sakura was thinking. Said kunoichi's face fell slightly as she realized her mentor wasn't talking about the Team 7 Sakura had been hoping for. Not Kakashi-sensei, not Sasuke-kun…

"I just know you're not going to concentrate if I put you and the Uchiha together, Sakura. You two can save all your mushy loving for when you get back," ordered Tsunade, with a knowing smile on her face.

Sakura's cheeks tinted pink, and she nodded, saying, "Alright then, I'll go grab them and come back."

Tsunade gave her an approving nod and waved her off, head bent over her work once again.

With the knowledge that neither Naruto nor Sai had any current missions, Sakura knew where to find them. As expected, they were lounging on the wooden stools of the Ichiraku Ramen stand, talking with Sakura's dark-haired boyfriend, Uchiha Sasuke.

After a long four years, Sasuke had managed to avenge his clan. Returning to Konoha, he had found, much like he expected, that he was not quite well-received among the townspeople. Nevertheless, the Hokage renewed his status as a shinobi of Konoha, although Sasuke had been confined within the walls of Konoha for a year and was limited to only D-rank missions within the village. As time went on, the shinobi of Konoha began to slowly warm up to Sasuke again, and soon enough, his fanclub was completely revived with the exception of Ino, who had long ago given up on him.

Within that time, Naruto and Sakura were really the only ones who stood by Sasuke. While the Uchiha was still as cold and callous as ever, it as obvious that his two friends had made a large impact on him. So much, that only half a year into his return, he was able to face his own feelings for Sakura and ask her out. The past seven months had been very happy for the young couple – so happy, that they were seriously looking to settle down together in the near future.

It was all Sakura could ever dream for – a loving (although he didn't appear so) boyfriend, two amazing best friends (Naruto and Ino), a powerful and knowledgeable mentor, and a team that worked well together.

The three males turned around as they sensed her coming towards them. Giving them a bright smile, Sakura jogged up to them and plunked herself on a seat between Naruto and Sasuke.

"Sakura," Sasuke greeted, giving her a tiny smile that only she saw. She restrained herself from giving him a hug, knowing his aversion to public physical contact.

"Sakura-chan!!!!!!" Naruto enthusiastically said through mouthfuls of ramen. She playfully thumped him on the back, chiding him for his non-existent table manners.

Sai merely lifted a hand in greeting, saying a trademark, "Hey Ugly."

She glared but let it go – murdering one of the teammates she needed for the mission would definitely leave a black stain on her reputation as a kunoichi of Konoha. Something that Tsunade-sama would not approve of.

"We've just been assigned a mission," Sakura informed, turning to the two males on her right.

"We have?" Naruto gleefully exclaimed. "What rank, what rank?"

Shrugging, Sakura answered, "Don't know until you guys come with me and see. She said this time it's you guys, me, and Yamato-taichou. I don't think it'll be too exciting though."

"Aww…oh well, any mission is better than being stuck here, right, Sasuke-teme?" Naruto smirked at Sasuke, who glared back intensely.

"Shut up, dobe."

"Naruto, Sasuke's probation period is over, so stop bugging him about it," glared Sakura. It was Sasuke's turn to smirk, as Naruto made a face and Sasuke lightly squeezed the slender hand within his own. Sakura smiled at him, and hopped down from the stool lightly, saying, "We should go, or Tsunade-sama's going to throw a fit. She should've found Yamato-taichou by now."

Sai mimicked her actions, hopping down his stool lightly and pulling Naruto with him too.

"Come on, Dickless, you can have ramen after we're done briefing."

"Shut up, dumbass. Come on, Sakura-chan!" Naruto pushed Sai away to link arms with Sakura, who sighed and went along with it after giving Sasuke another small smile. Sasuke watched as the three walked off, disappearing into the crowd.

* * *

"We haven't had an A-rank mission, in a long time, eh?" Naruto said happily, as the four shinobi leapt between the trees.

"Yeah, and weren't you saying it probably wasn't going to be exciting, Ugly?" Sai asked lightly, clad in full ANBU uniform.

"Shut up," she muttered, turning away from the dark-haired male beside her.

"Now now, no arguing. Let's take this time to review our mission details," Yamato said, from his place on the other side of Sai.

"Our mission is quite simple – retrieve a scroll containing a small clan's secret jutsu from a group of missing-nin from the Cloud. According to our latest updates, they should be just about to cross the border from Fire Country into the Waterfall Country. These shinobi are apparently highly skilled in genjutsu, so we have to watch out for that. Our goal is to not engage them in battle, as their numbers are greater than ours, although their overall skill may not reach our level. Sakura, as medic-nin, you cannot afford to be injured. You will standby just in case we do end up alerting the enemy of our presence and need backup. Sai, Naruto, I will be creating a genjutsu that will hopefully confuse our opponents, at least until they realize that the scroll is gone. We should be out of their encampment by then though. Stealth is important. Are we all clear?"

Three voices said, "Yes!" before the four of them continued in relative quiet through the lush forests of the edge of Fire Country.

* * *

Sakura knew something was wrong as soon as they reached the well-hidden encampments of the enemy shinobi. Whether is was her kunoichi senses, or just her female intuition, her gut was telling her that something would go horribly wrong.

Naruto, noticing her discomfort, whispered, "Sakura-chan? Are you alright?"

Nodding, she replied, "Yeah, but something just doesn't feel right."

Hearing the whispered conversation between Sakura and Naruto, Sai said in low tones, "Just be alert. The enemy shinobi haven't noticed us yet."

Still not quite believing everything was okay, Sakura discretely formed a hand seal and whispered, "Kai!"

When no genjutsu faded, she was slightly reassured, although still bothered by the nagging feeling within her abdomen.

At Yamato's signal, Sakura landed noiselessly on the grassy ground, while the three males whipped through the treetops above her. A few seconds later, she felt Yamato's chakra signature weave into a highly complex and effective genjutsu, leaving her out of it so she could help monitor the events going on inside the encampment. Sai and Naruto were presumably already inside, and were expected to be able to come out within 10 minutes.

To her surprise, Sai and Naruto arrived by her side in 5 minutes, followed swiftly by Yamato. Sai, who was holding the scroll tightly in his left hand, transformed it into a marked kunai and tucked it into his pouch.

"Alright, we can go," he whispered, launching himself into the air, closely followed by Naruto and Yamato. Sakura lingered, a frown forming on her face.

Something. Was. Not. Right.

First of all, this was an A-ranked mission for a reason. Even with Sai's stealth and Naruto's chakra, there was absolutely no way they could've come out so quickly. This was further compounded by the fact that Sakura, while not quite the genius Shikamaru was, never, ever miscalculated important things such as that. She had carefully inputted in all the factors that could've delayed their retrieval, and the total time, in a best-case scenario, came up to be ten minutes.

Secondly, no matter how much Naruto had matured throughout the years, he was just not a quiet shinobi. Whenever a mission was completed successfully, Naruto _always_ had to indulge himself in a little bit of whooping to feel complete. That little indulgence had gotten the team in trouble more than once. And yet, Naruto hadn't done his little whooping, and furthermore, had followed Sai without question – something that was totally uncharacteristic of him.

Dread flowed through her system as Sakura quickly formed another hand seal, one that had been taught to her by her mentor. One that was meant to dispel any genjutsu, whether high, low, or medium level. One that generally wasn't used as much as the "kai" jutsu because it required precise chakra control, something that Sakura had.

Forming the last hand seal, she closed her eyes and released a sharp burst of chakra. Within seconds, the scenery around her had faded and she realized that she had successfully dispelled the genjutsu that had been weaved around her teammates and herself.

Hearing sounds of kunai clashing, she leapt into the air and caught sight of Sai and Naruto, locked in battle with at least 6 Cloud-nin. Sai actually did have the scroll with him, but it was just tucked into his belt and looked like it would fall at any second. Yamato, too, was fighting 2 Cloud-nin, but he appeared to not even have a scratch.

They had been tricked and had fallen into the Cloud-nin's trap, but they still appeared to have the upper hand.

Things went downhill from there. Firstly, a fresh group of 6 Cloud-nin appeared and promptly joined the battle. Secondly, the scroll that had been on Sai's belt had loosened to the point that it fell, and since all three males were locked in battle, none of them could do anything about it.

Sakura kicked into action, managing to snatch the scroll out of the air before it hit the ground. Unfortunately, she managed to get the attention of the enemy shinobi, being very conspicuous with her bright pink hair.  
Cursing as 4 Cloud-nin began to make their way towards her, she hurriedly transformed the scroll into a kunai and tucked it into the pouch on her belt that only held medical supplies.

Not wanting to give her opponents time, she concentrated her chakra in her fist and punched the ground, thoroughly surprising all 4 of them and managing to break the leg of the last one, who hadn't been quick enough to evade the sharp rocks that had suddenly jutted out from the ground.

She heard a muffled "Sakura-chan!" from Naruto before the enemy was upon her. She evaded kunai, dodged shuriken, trying hard to be able to keep herself and the scroll safe from enemy blows. But as the numbers were clearly against her, she soon found herself being caught in a corner. She had numerous gashes upon her arms, and found that holding even a kunai was getting harder – she suspected that the Cloud-nin used poison-tipped weapons. It wasn't long before one enemy nin got right up to her face.

"You've got a pretty face, but I don't think you're cut out to be a shinobi, girlie," the man laughed menacingly, his hot breath fanning over her face. White-hot pain pierced her abdomen and the world faded to black.

* * *

"Shit, Sakura-chan's got herself covered with Cloud-nin," snarled Naruto, as he hacked his way through another shinobi. Sai, slicing the enemy more delicately with his sword, replied, "I know. We have to finish up quickly, I don't think she can hold them for too long."

A gasp from Naruto caused him to whip his head around in Sakura's direction, where he saw she seemed to have stopped, her arms hanging limply at her sides. There was a Cloud-nin advancing towards her.

"Dammnit!" he cursed. Looking back over at Naruto, he saw bubbles of orange chakra beginning to appear from the blond's body.

"I'll take care of things here, you go help Sakura-chan," Naruto growled, in an uncharacteristic display of leadership.

Too surprised to argue, Sai turned around, just in time to see Sakura getting impaled by the Cloud-nin.

He thought his heart stopped.

What scared him the most was the fact that his mind held no care about whether the enemy nin got the scroll, but rather, the only thought occupying his mind was whether or not she was alright.

Which really was a stupid question, considering the fact that she had an extremely sharp object sticking out of her lower belly.

Needless to say, Sai finished off the Cloud-nin and in no time at all, Sakura was tucked safely in his arms.

"Ugly, hey Ugly! Wake up, will you?" he shook her slightly, surprising himself by the amount of concern in his voice.

Sai couldn't remember how long it had been since he had felt such an urgency racing within his blood. And most of all, he couldn't remember just exactly how tightly he had cradled her limp body within his arms as he, Naruto, and Yamato raced back to Konoha.

* * *

Sakura awoke to a darkened room, silent except for the slow, soothing sound of a beeping heart monitor. As her blurry vision slowly returned to normal, she realized that her room was empty, devoid of visitors.

That train of thought was cut short as her door burst open and she was promptly crushed by two individuals with blond hair and blue eyes.

"Sakura-chan!!!!" Naruto wailed.

"Forehead girl!!!!" sobbed Ino.

"Hey Dickless, Ino-san, let her breathe. You're going to make her suffocate," Sai's soft, monotonic voice said. "Although that might not be a bad thing…" he added in afterthought.

"Shut up," Sakura croaked, her voice hoarse from lack of use.

"You had me so worried!" Ino glared accusingly, jabbing a finger into Sakura's forehead. Said kunoichi rolled her eyes and replied, "Like I _wanted_ to get impaled, Ino-pig…"

The atmosphere damped considerably. Sakura, confused by the sudden change on the expressions of her friends' faces, asked, "What's wrong?"

Ino cleared her throat and got up, saying, "I'll go get Godaime-sama," giving Sakura a small smile before leaving.

"Erm…how're you feeling?" Naruto attempted to break the heavy and awkward silence.

"Sore all over," replied Sakura. "What about you guys?"

Before they could answer, the door swung open to reveal Tsunade, looking infinitely pleased that her apprentice had woken up.

"Sakura!" she greeted, giving the seventeen-year-old a fond and familiar smile.

"Tsunade-sama!" Sakura cried, attempting to get up. Stopping her with a hand, Tsunade pursed her lips together, saying, "Stop it, Sakura. You're going to overexert yourself. You've been out for two weeks and you're still recuperating."

"Two weeks…" Sakura whispered. "I've been out for two whole weeks?"

"Yeah, you were, Sakura-chan. We were so worried!" Naruto said, his blue eyes still clouded with worry for her.

"I think we've already established that fact," Sai commented dryly, looking away from the occupant of the bed.

Tsunade sent an irritated glance towards the ANBU male, muttering, "I don't know why we still keep him around…"

Sakura and Naruto shared a smirk – while it was true that Sai was annoying, rude, and condescending, he was an excellent shinobi and a great addition to their team. And there _were _times when that cold and distant mask of his fell away and revealed a little bit of who he truly was on the inside.

"Anyhow, Sakura," Tsunade said briskly, "I've got to give you a check-up to see how you're doing. So if you boys will…" She sent the males a pointed glare, and both slowly slouched out of the room.

As soon as the door clicked close, Tsunade's annoyed facial expression slid off her face completely, and she turned to Sakura, a more tired-looking, serious look on her features.

Sensing that her teacher had something important to tell her, Sakura said, "Shishou, is there something wrong?"

Clearing her throat, Tsunade began, "Sakura, I really don't know how to say this…but do you remember your battle with the Cloud-nin?"

Nodding, Sakura gestured for her to continue.

"Well, it seems that all the weapons used by the Cloud-nin had been bathed with poison. When I first assigned that mission, I had no idea about the poisons, or that their genjutsu was so powerful, or else I probably would have sent someone like Shizune as well. I found out after you four had left that the clan that the scroll had been stolen from was actually keeping some facts from me."

Sakura noticed that Tsunade's fist seemed to unconsciously clench as she spoke.

"It seems that two of their most powerful clan members had been gravely injured trying to protect the scroll. They didn't tell me about that because I probably would've made them pay more, due to the added difficulty and risk. So I figured that things were looking pretty bad, with all the poison and everything. To make things worse, they were all _different_ types of poisons, some that even _I _haven't seen before. The first several hours when you were brought back were tough, since I had to make guesswork out of several of your injuries."

Taking a deep breath, Tsunade continued.

"The reason you had been out for so long was because your body had to flush out the poisons by itself, at least the ones that had no known antidote. In the coming weeks, you'll have to train yourself hard, especially your arms, since the different poisons have left different aftereffects on your arms."

Giving a wry smile, Sakura said, "I suppose so."

"Apart from the varying degree of damage done to your arms, there is another very important point that you have to…" here Tsunade hesitated, biting her lip. A small frown found its way onto Sakura's face as she watched her teacher bite her lip in discomfort. Tsunade was not one who appeared this disturbed very often.

"Sakura…the sword that impaled you…it was covered with a quick-working poison that had spread a lot by the time Sai had gotten you to me. By the time I could remove most of it, irreversible damage had already been done to certain parts of your internal organs. I knit most of your insides together again, but due to the…delicate nature of the tissue that had been the most affected, I couldn't restore the ability of this tissue…"

"Tsunade-shishou, what exactly do you mean?" Sakura slowly asked, a feeling of dread beginning to climb up her gut.

"Sakura, I…I'm sorry. But the sword went straight through your uterus. The chance of you ever having children is small…"

"I'm sorry…" Tsunade finished.

Pressing a shaking hand to her bandaged abdomen, Sakura laughed weakly. "You're kidding, right? Tell me you're kidding…"

At Tsunade's desolate expression, Sakura crumpled up, dropping the hand limply onto her pristine sheets. A single tear made its way down her smooth cheek, followed by another, and another, until a steady stream of liquid flowed from her green eyes. Fisting the sheets in her hands, Sakura sobbed.

Children. While they weren't at the top of her priority list, Sakura had never wanted anything more than to get to have the chance to hold her own child, to get to experience motherly love, to watch as her children grew and surpassed herself…

Her green eyes widened suddenly and an icy fear tore at her heart. A single word fell slowly from her chapped lips.

"Sasuke…"

* * *

**a/n: **Hey everybody!

First of all, many, many, _many_ thanks to my friends **Silver Matter **and **tingtinkerbell **for editing and giving me lot of constructive criticism! They are both _extremely _talented writers and I hope you'll check them out too!

Um...this is my first chaptered Naruto story, ever. So please be nice and review, tell me how you like it so far. And no matter how much of a Sakura x Sasuke it seems like right now, it _**is **_going to be a Sai x Sakura. Very much so, might I add. And I have to admit, this story may not be for die-hard Sasuke lovers who will flame me to no end if I just slightly badmouth Sasuke. Not that I have any badmouthing planned (or written), but you know, I _**do**_ have to break Sasuke and Sakura up in order to make this a Sai and Sakura, right? So that's just a little warning.

Please give me your comments and suggestions! Thank you!

nostalgic-maiden


	2. Succumbing to Sorrow

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Succumbing to Sorrow**

* * *

Ino raced down the bustling streets, ignoring the blond strands of hair that partially obscured her vision and the way the villagers looked strangely at her.

She and Naruto had forcibly sent Sasuke back home only an hour before Sakura awoke. He had stayed at her bedside continuously for two weeks, barely moving, even to eat or use the washroom. They had finally convinced him to leave, at least for a while, when Sakura woke up.

Skidding to a halt in front of the Uchiha compound, Ino knocked frantically on the door.

"Sasuke, open up!!!" she shrieked.

Said Uchiha did so, looking thoroughly disgruntled, dripping with water and clad only in a pair of shorts.

Ino didn't even pause to gawk at him before saying, "She's up! Sakura woke up!"

Sasuke's eyes widened. Sprinting back into his house, he reappeared mere moments later after, looking much more presentable in a simple shirt emblazoned with the Uchiha clan symbol.

Without a second look at Ino, he raced towards the Konoha hospital. Huffing with annoyance, Ino followed him.

Much to Tsunade's irritation, Sasuke flew into the room without knocking, almost bowling the Hokage over in his haste to get to Sakura.

"Sakura," he breathed, enfolding her gently in his arms.

Her tears brimmed up once again as she held him tightly, reacquainting herself with his familiar scent and warm touch.

"Don't cry," he murmured, patting her back soothingly.

"I'm not crying," she mumbled, removing one of her hands from around his neck to hastily rub her jade eyes.

Giving a small snort, Sasuke replied, "Liar."

Laughing weakly, she pulled away from him, affectionately pushing back his wet bangs from his face.

"You're going to catch a cold, running around with wet hair and damp clothes," she chided.

"Worry about yourself," he retorted.

"Ahem," Tsunade said, "Sorry to interrupt your little moment, but if you guys want to get anywhere any time soon, you'd better check out of the hospital."

* * *

Sakura's face was drawn up in a pensive frown as Sasuke walked her back to the apartment where she lived by herself.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" Sasuke asked, as the door of her dwelling came into sight.

Pasting a blinding smile upon her face, she replied, "Honestly, I'm fine. I probably just need to rest."

"After sleeping for two weeks?" he snorted, but he dropped the issue. He knew she would tell him when she was ready.

The two shared a simple dinner together, catching up on the events of the past two weeks. Sakura also patiently relayed her rather disastrous mission with her concerned boyfriend, him interrupting often to tell her she should've been more careful. He left when they were done, after being repeatedly assured by Sakura that she'd be alright washing the dishes by herself. He was going to train with Hyuuga Neji, who was now Konoha's top ANBU captain.

Dishes gleaming on her dish rack, Sakura sat down, hands folded limply on her lap. She was at a loss. The fact that she probably couldn't have children would no doubt take a toll on Sasuke, as well as their relationship. But Sakura knew by experience that Sasuke was not one to be lied to. She would feel bad doing it anyways.

Sighing, she picked up her keys and headed out the door, intent on getting Ino to help her, and maybe grab a few drinks on the way.

Twenty minutes later, the two females were seated side by side at the bar of the club where most of Konoha's shinobi and kunoichi congregated to relax.

Downing her drink in two gulps, Ino said, "I can't believe it."

Mirroring her friend's actions, Sakura replied, "Neither can I."

Glancing over at her pink-haired friend, Ino said, "Hey Forehead, should you be drinking?"

"It's not my stomach that has the problem right now, Ino-pig. Besides, shishou has always said that alcohol cures all pains," Sakura replied, gesturing for the barman to refill their glasses.

"She probably meant emotional pains, not the physical ones I'm referring to," Ino muttered.

"Ino, I don't know what to do," Sakura broke down. "I don't want to lie to Sasuke, but if I tell him, he might leave me."

"Oh Sakura, why would he do that? To people who know him, it's obvious he loves you," Ino soothed.

"But still, apart from killing Itachi, reviving his clan was his life ambition. If I can't have kids, the Uchiha clan can't revive itself unless he finds another woman," Sakura hiccupped.

Ino didn't know what to say. She knew that back when they were genin, Sasuke had had two dreams – avenging his clan, and reviving his clan. They were what his life had been built upon. She knew it would be hard for him to just give one up.

Glancing at her watch, Ino slung a comforting arm around Sakura and said, "Look Sakura, I've got a meeting with some Academy teachers right about now. I'll see you tomorrow, alright? And then we'll figure something out, okay?"

At Sakura's nod and weak smile, she got up and headed towards the door, throwing a "Don't drink yourself into oblivion!!" behind her.

* * *

Ino strolled down the street, trying to gather her thoughts for her meeting, but Sakura's predicament kept nagging at the back of mind. Ino was worried that Sakura _would_ drink herself silly.

Walking past Ichiraku, she spotted the lone figure of Sai eating a bowl of steaming ramen. An idea blooming in her mind, she walked over to him and clapped him on the back.

"Hey, Sai!" she smiled. After swallowing his mouthful of ramen, he answered, "Hello, Ino-san."

"Where's Naruto?" she asked, curious why Sai was alone at Ichiraku.

"He's with Hinata-san tonight," Sai replied, pausing to eat another mouthful. "He said it's their one year anniversary."

"I see. Anyways, can you do me a favour?" she asked.

"A favour?"

"Yeah. Sakura's at the club drowning her sorrows in alcohol. I'd be with her, but I've got an important meeting that I can't miss. Can you make sure she doesn't get too drunk and get her home if she does?" she pleaded.

"Shouldn't Sasuke-kun be the one doing that?" Sai asked lightly.

"Well, he's sort of the problem…"Ino said hesitantly. Glancing at her watch again, she jumped up and screeched, "I'm late!"

Turning to Sai, she said, "Sorry, gotta go. You better not leave her alone!" before running out.

"But Ino-san, I didn't agree!" he called to her retreating back. She didn't appear to have heard him though.

"Why would I care that Ugly's getting herself drunk?" he murmured to himself.

But ever since he had joined Team 7 nearly five years ago, he had developed something that Sakura called a 'conscience'. It was that (usually) annoying voice that nagged him whenever he did anything wrong. Especially when he smiled his fake smile.

And now, his conscience, coupled with an unfamiliar feeling in his heart, was telling him to go to Sakura.

Sighing in resignation, he put a bill on the counter and got up, trudging in the direction of the club. He found her quickly in a secluded corner, her pink hair catching his eye immediately. Placing himself in the seat next to her, he ordered a beer and turned to the kunoichi beside him.

"Hey Ugly," he greeted her in his usual fashion.

"Mmph…" was his only reply as she had buried her face deep into her arms, which were resting on the counter.

Gulping down half of his beer, Sai continued, "Ino-san says you're drowning your sorrows in alcohol."

Her head came up then, and rubbing her eyes blearily, she replied, "Drowning? I'm not drowning."

"You're drunk," Sai informed her. "And Ino-san told me to make sure you don't get too drunk. So you've got to stop drinking, Ugly."

"I don't wanna!" she hiccupped, banging her fist on the counter for another drink. Sai eyed the row of glasses that surrounded Sakura. Just exactly how much had she drank? And Ino had mentioned something about Sasuke. What had the Uchiha done to make her drink like that?

Finally able to coax an inebriated Sakura out of the club half an hour (and a round of drinks) after, Sai made his way towards Sakura's apartment with said kunoichi staggering along beside him. Twice she almost collapsed to the ground, and he finally had enough of that. Kneeling down beside her, he said, "Get your ugly self on. I don't need you collapsing on me again."

Giggling slightly, Sakura dropped herself onto his back. Sighing, Sai cursed his conscience as he began making his way at a slower pace.

A highly drunk Sakura buried her head into the back of Sai's neck. He let out another exasperated sigh and said, "Stop that, Ugly."

Sakura merely giggled again and said, "You smell nice."

Feeling his cheeks heat up ever so slightly, Sai replied, "I'm sure Sasuke-kun wouldn't appreciate you saying things like that. In fact, I don't think he'd be very happy with me if he happened to see us, so I'm getting you home faster."

"Sasuke-kun's a bum," Sakura hiccupped.

"Oh really?" Sai said, surprised. He knew that people tended to speak truths when drunk, so he didn't understand why Sakura would her boyfriend a bum, of all things.

"Why couldn't you have been Sasuke?" she whispered, sounding more sober than before. "You don't have a clan to revive."

Sai stopped dead in his tracks. Did he just hear her correctly? She wished _he_ was Sasuke? Because he didn't have a clan to revive? The implications of those words, coupled with the distraught expression she had carried from the time of her hospital release hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Sakura," he slowly said. It was the first time he had called her by her name without sarcasm or negativity. "Are you…"

His only answer was the tightening of her arms around his neck, and the wetness of her tears on his neck.

"Sakura," he began, but she hoarsely cut him off.

"She says I can't have kids."

Sai unconsciously tightened his grip on her. An unprecedented amount of sorrow numbed him as he heard the words come out from her mouth. He didn't understand _why _he was so upset over _her_ heartbreak, but somehow, her grief had overflowed into him. He had nothing to say to that. He had nothing he _could _say about that.

Silence reigned from them on, broken only by Sakura's heavy breathing, signaling to Sai that she had fallen asleep.

Arriving at her apartment, he got out his copy of her key to the apartment. She had given a copy of her key to Sasuke, Ino, and her teammates.

Feeling grateful that she had the foresight to do so, he carried her into the apartment, proceeded into her room, and dropped her on the bed.

His hand strayed near a lock of her hair that was spilling onto her white pillow, but he withdrew his hand and turned away. He was suddenly frightened of his thoughts. Thoughts that were telling him how heartbreakingly beautiful she looked at the moment – her fragility and vulnerability utterly exposed, the silver trails of her dried tears upon her face.

"She's just Ugly," he murmured to himself, shaking his head and closing the door quietly.

* * *

"Sakura-chan!!!!!" Naruto hollered, hammering on her door.

In her bedroom, Sakura rolled over and groaned, unwilling to open her eyes.

"Open up, Sakura-chan! If you don't, I'm coming in! Don't you yell at me if I catch you-" Naruto stopped, seeing the disapproving look on Hinata's face.

"Hinata-chan!" he whined. "I'm worried about Sakura-chan, but I don't wanna walk in on anything…"

"Why don't I go in and check before getting you to come in? Perhaps that would be more appropriate…" Hinata suggested.

A grin bloomed on Naruto's face as he locked Hinata in a crushing embrace. "You're the best, Hinata-chan!!"

Hinata blushed and held out her hand for Sakura's key. Jiggling the keys in the lock, she entered Sakura's apartment and padded quietly into the bedroom.

Sakura was sprawled across the bed, a hand draped across her eyes.

"Sakura-chan, are you okay?" Hinata asked, concern evident in her voice.

"I feel like shit," Sakura weakly replied.

"What's wrong?" Hinata asked, alarmed.

"Hangover," Sakura replied. It was then Hinata noticed the lingering stench of alcohol in the room.

"Sakura-chan…" Hinata began, disapproval lacing her voice.

"I know, I know, Hinata-chan. But I was really messed up last night, I really need an escape. I was so drunk, I can't remember what happened last night or how I got home," Sakura groaned, finally beginning to sit up.

Shaking her head, Hinata said, "Anyways, Naruto-kun is outside waiting. Should I got get him?"

"Yeah, probably. Thanks, Hinata-chan," Sakura smiled, reaching in her bedside drawer for aspirin.

Naruto bounded into the room seconds later, wailing, "Why'd you go drinking without me, Sakura-chan?"

"Hush, Naruto-kun. Sakura-chan's got a killer headache," Hinata admonished.

"Sorry," Naruto meekly said. Sakura rolled her eyes despite the pain threatening to crack her skull open – Naruto was so whipped, and he wasn't even married.

"I was with Ino-pig until she had some Academy meeting," Sakura informed him. "But after she left, I don't remember much."

Sakura didn't tell them that she had vague recollections of dark hair, a nice comforting smell, as well as warmth. She didn't need Naruto telling Sasuke that she had gone drinking with another male last night.

* * *

"Alright Sasuke, this is going to be your first mission after your probation has been lifted. Don't mess it up, got it?" Tsunade, with her hands on her hips, glared at the Uchiha.

Smirking slightly, Sasuke nodded and said, "I won't. Thank you, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade's frown relaxed and she smiled, saying, "This should take you half a day, at most. I sent you because it's a waste of resources to send a team of chuunins who will take even longer than you will to finish this. I'd imagine you probably want to hurry home after you're done this mission. Sakura needs you."

"Yes, she does," Sasuke agreed, picking up the mission scroll on her desk.

Sighing, Tsunade rubbed her temples and said, "Things are probably very hard for Sakura right now. She really needs your support. She's probably still in denial after all this…"

A small frown appeared on Sasuke's face. "In denial?"

Looking up, Tsunade looked surprise. "Of course. After such a life-shattering event, what woman wouldn't be in denial? Poor Sakura probably spent all of last night crying her heart out. Having been told you probably can't have kids is very traumatic, Sasuke."

"What did you say?" Sasuke bit, disbelief written all over his normally stoic face.

Tsunade's features twisted in further confusion. "Do you mean to say Sakura didn't -"

She never finished her sentence because Sasuke had disappeared in a puff of smoke. Cursing her loose lips, Tsunade prayed that what she had just revealed wouldn't damage their relationship. Smiling bitterly, she knew deep in her heart that no matter what she prayed now, things wouldn't change.

* * *

**a/n: **Don't kill me. Please.

Um yeah. So the big confrontation takes place next chapter...as well as a little surprise that I think will cause people to hate me for an eternity XD

How do you guys like it so far? I'm slowly starting to make Sai open his eyes to Sakura, but he's just in denial and doesn't understand his feelings. Sakura already subconsciously feels a little bit of something for Sai. But of course, she really doensn't know that.

In terms of story length, I'm hoping to have around...10-15 chapters of the same length. And you don't have to worry about me dying on you (aka not updating in months); I already have the entire story planned out, so writing it should be relatively quick and painless XD

Again, big thank yous to my friends **Silver Matter** and **tingtinkerbell **for editing and revising!

Review please! And I hope this chapter was enjoyable :)


	3. When Things Escalate

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 3: When Things Escalate...**

* * *

Sakura yawned audibly and paused from writing. She had voluntarily placed herself on the tedious and rather boring ward watch instead of in the emergency or operating rooms, lest her dull headache and fatigue cause her to mess up. In the shinobi world, especially the medic field, there really was no such thing as a second chance.

_But I know that already, don't I?_ She thought sardonically.

The relative morning quiet was broken by a loud bang. Looking up, she saw Sasuke standing at the door of her ward.

She smiled expectantly, but the grin slid off her face when she felt the cold fury rolling off him in waves.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded in low tones.

Her blood ran cold at his words. "You know?"

"Tsunade-sama let is slip, thinking you would have told me. Evidently, she thought wrong." His lips twisted in a bitter smirk.

"You think I didn't want to tell you?" she whispered.

"It doesn't matter. You should've told me when you first found out," Sasuke growled.

"So my confusion, my heartbreak, it all doesn't matter? Is that what you mean?" Sakura demanded, slowly getting up from her seat.

"No, that's not what I meant. But you know how important it is to me…" Sasuke retorted.

"So that's how it is, Sasuke? I was important because of my ability to carry children?" she asked, her volume and shrillness growing with every word.

"I never said that!" Sasuke insisted, his voice rising to meet hers in volume.

"Well, you're acting like it! Do you have any idea how hard this was for me?" she all but shrieked, ignoring the curious and slightly fearful glances that her colleagues were shooting in their direction.

"All I hoped was that you'd understand, that you'd be here for me," she said, tears streaming down her flushed face.

Sasuke closed his eyes, feeling something inside him break at her words. She carried so much pain, so much sorrow, so much that it overflowed into him.

At that moment, a choice presented itself to Sasuke. Walk across the room to Sakura, and leave behind his dream of reviving his clan, letting the secret of the Sharingan die with himself, or back out the door and leave the only woman he had ever loved behind.

It was now or never. Comforting her now, giving her hope now, only to leave later, would hurt her deeper than if he just left. But he wasn't sure he could live with his decision if he walked out now.

Sakura, or his clan?

Love, or duty?

His eyelids parted to reveal black orbs full of turmoil and uncertainty. But he blinked and his eyes cleared, now displaying cold determination.

"Sakura…"

She looked up, her watery emerald eyes begging him to stay with her.

"I have always loved you, and always will," he started. "But I'm sorry…my clan has to come first."

Without a second look at her, lest his resolve weaken, he walked away, leaving the broken form of Haruno Sakura behind him.

Sakura dissolved into tears once again, her defeated self slumping back onto her seat.

* * *

Sasuke returned from his mission in record time, arriving back in Konoha just as dusk set in. It was probably partially due to the fact his clients looked so wary of him and his sour mood that they walked exponentially faster than anticipated. He had gotten them to their destination and hightailed back to Konoha, stopping when he got to the village to drop his mission scroll back at the Godaime's office.

But everything in the village reminded him of Sakura, and the happy times they had spent together. Mentally shaking his head, he headed towards the club, hoping a drink or two would muddle up his mind enough to forget about her.

He began to feel less tense after three drinks, but with his relaxation, his emotional barrier broke. Memories began to surface quicker than they had before.

He gulped down his fourth glass, gesturing for it to be refilled, while murmuring, "No regrets."

"No regrets," he repeated, his voice cracking slightly. Feeling a burning sensation at the behind his eyelids, he forced his eyes shut and emptied his glass again.

He was _not_ going to break down. Uchiha Sasuke didn't mope over, and most certainly didn't _cry_ over a girl. He didn't. He _wouldn't._

"No regrets," he continued, feeling a rebellious tear slide down his cheek. Clenching his fists together, Uchiha Sasuke realized that breaking up with Haruno Sakura was his first regret.

* * *

Sakura had no idea how she got home. She vaguely remembered Tsunade's soothing embrace and whispered encouragement, but they were all blurred by the memory of her hot tears. She also vaguely remembered a comforting dark that had fallen over her eyes, and realized that Tsunade had probably gently knocked her out with chakra and gotten one of her friends to take her home.

Judging from the soft streetlight filtering through her translucent bedroom curtains, it was probably just after dusk. Getting up from her bed, she padded out the door, where she found Naruto and Sai chatting softly over several cans of beer.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto greeted, his characteristic brightness replaced by something a lot more forced.

Sa raised a hand at her, forgoing his usual "Hey Ugly." Team 7's "teach-Sai-to-be-tactful" lessons had obviously worked to a certain extent.

"Hey guys," she murmured, setting herself down between them and taking a swig from Naruto's can.

Sasuke's words repeated themselves over and over her head, and she found her fingers gripping the can tighter, causing the can to crumple slightly under her strong grip.

"We heard what happened," Naruto hesitantly started. "Tsunade-baachan had told us to get you home and keep an eye on you."

"Hinata-san and Ino-san just went to get us some food," Sai added.

Nodding numbly, Sakura released Naruto's can of cola and clenched her fists together instead.

"I would've done anything for him," she began unsteadily, her voice laced with pain and anger.

Naruto took one of her hands in his own, while he and Sai continued to listen to her talk.

"I would've given him enough children to revive his clan, if that was what he wanted. When this came up, I thought that I would be enough for him, enough for him to leave behind his own clan," she continued.

"But I guess I thought wrong," she bitterly finished.

"It's okay, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said, gripping her hand tighter. "Me and Hinata-chan will be here for you always. And Ino and Sai-teme will too!"

"Besides," Sai interjected, "someone like him doesn't deserve you, no matter how ugly you are."

Perhaps it was her state of emotional instability that caused her to become very touched by Sai's words, but Sakura threw herself uncharacteristically around his neck, giving him a weak, "Thank you."

Both males' eyes widened at her unexpected action. Urged on silently by Naruto, Sai hesitantly patted her on the back.

Sakura's eyes opened as she caught a strong whiff of Sai's scent. She now remembered who had brought her home the night before.

* * *

Sasuke awoke as the rays of the rising sun filtered into the room. He groggily sat up and realized immediately that something was amiss.

Firstly, his clothes were scattered on the floor, when they were usually neatly folded on a chair. Secondly, he saw that there were several articles of clothing mixed in with his own that _definitely_ would not belong to him.

His heart jumped to his throat as he remembered what exactly he had done the night before. His eyes traveled slowly to the petite, dark-haired figure slumbering peacefully next to him. He remembered with a start that she had vividly green eyes.

Eyes that had reminded him so strongly of Sakura. So much that, perhaps his drunken mind had mistaken her for Sakura. Putting his head in his hands, Sasuke couldn't help but think, W_hat have I done?_

* * *

Weeks passed in which Sasuke and Sakura avoided each other to the best of their ability. Sasuke, shunned by the rest of the shinobi who knew about Sakura's heartbreak, merely trained from day to night and did solo missions. Sakura remained on the wards, trying to lose her troubles in a sea of patient records and medicinal charts. Her life was quite monotonous now, so Sakura was secretly quite pleased when a sixteen-year old medic chuunin under her tutelage collapsed on her shift. It gave Sakura something other than paperwork and unresponsive patients to deal with.

Testing revealed that the kunoichi, Inoue Amaya, was pregnant. A rueful smile danced upon Sakura's lips she read the file. It was the first time Sakura had ever felt jealous of one of her patients.

"Congratulations, Amaya-san! You're pregnant!" Sakura announced, with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

"Pregnant?" Amaya faintly asked. Nodding, Sakura replied, "Very much so. I'm also supposed to notify your parents if you're under fifteen, which you're not, as well as the father. His identity will be kept strictly confidential, so no need to worry about that. Can I please have the father's name?"

A look of terror flitted across the chuunin's face. Sakura frowned. "Amaya-san, this is protocol – I have to follow it."

Amaya's mouth opened and closed, but now words came out. Finally, Amaya lowered her gaze and whispered two words.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

Sakura fainted.

* * *

The young female numbly swung her legs over the hospital bed she had been placed in. Not bothering to check out, Sakura walked quietly out of the wards and exited the hospital.

A flame of anger erupted within her as she realized that Amaya had gotten pregnant around the time she and Sasuke had broken up. Which meant that Sasuke…

Her fists clenched as she picked up her pace. She was so tired of being broken, so tired of being helpless, so tired of letting her life be controlled by Fate. Making a decision within minutes, she changed courses – instead of heading home for a good cry, like she had wanted, she headed towards the Ichiraku Ramen Stand. Like she predicted, Sai and Naruto were lounging in the brightly lit booth.

Marching right up to the two, she grabbed Sai by the wrist, not minding the half-finished bowl of ramen in front of the eighteen-year-old, and said, "Come with me."

Giving Naruto a quick half-smile, she dragged Sai off into the distance, leaving a dumbfounded Naruto behind to pick up the tab.

"Hey Ugly, what are you doing?" Sai asked, a tinge of annoyance in his otherwise emotionless voice.

"I need you for something," she replied shortly. It was then Sai noticed where she was heading – it seemed Sakura wished to go to the Hokage Tower. As to the reason why, Sai truly had no idea.

Tsunade looked quite surprised as Sakura barged into her office without knocking. Lifting an eyebrow, Tsunade said, "You need something, Sakura?"

Letting go of Sai, who immediately began to rub his wrist, Sakura turned to Tsunade, a determined glint in her eye.

"Tsunade-shishou, I request that you send me on a training mission to train for ANBU. I want Sai to teach and train me," Sakura said.

Tsunade's eyes widened in surprise. Sakura, who was a jounin, had never expressed any interest in ANBU whatsoever, so Tsunade was quite shocked that her pupil would just suddenly announce her interest in ANBU.

"Sakura," Tsunade said slowly, "did I just hear you say you want to train for ANBU?"

"Yes," Sakura answered, with no hesitation in her voice.

"But…why? And so sudden, Sakura?" Tsunade asked, bewildered. Sakura lowered her gaze, and softly replied, "Tsunade-sama…I'm…I'm just so tired of being broken. Tired of feeling so weak. And most of all…I'm so tired of healing other people's wounds when I can't even heal my own."

Tsunade's brown eyes reflected Sakura's sorrow. "Sakura-chan, did something happen?"

Sakura bit her lip. Tsunade turned to Sai and said, "Sai, can you please wait outside for a moment?"

Nodding, Sai turned and departed, letting his fathomless eyes linger over Sakura for only a moment.

"What's wrong, Sakura?" Tsunade softly asked.

"Sasuke…Sasuke got someone pregnant," Sakura softly replied, her voice betraying her hurt and anger.

"What?" Tsunade yelped, clearly unable to digest that fact.

"And it was soon after we broke up too…possibly on the same day," Sakura went on.

Tsunade sighed and rubbed her temples, understanding where her pupil was going with this.

"Tsunade-sama…you might think I'm only doing this to avoid Sasuke. And to tell you the truth, that's partially true. I really don't feel like I can face him right now. But I really _am_ tired of being broken by the same person. I know I've gotten stronger under you; even became jounin, something I'm sure not many people thought I could achieve. But I want to become stronger…I _need_ to become stronger. And I'm so tired of letting my emotions get the better of me. So tired of overreacting about everything…" Sakura explained.

Tsunade let out a breath, and nodded wearily. "How long are leaving for?"

Shrugging, Sakura replied, "As long as it takes for me to heal myself, and get stronger."

"Alright. I'll let you go. You've learned almost all that you can from me anyways," Tsunade laughed softly. "One last thing though. Why do you want Sai to go with you?"

Sakura smiled slightly. "Apart from my teammates, only one other person at this point in time would be willing to leave Konoha for an extended period of time, and that's Ino. But she's a teacher at the Academy; she can't just leave. Besides, my rank surpasses hers, so I doubt she can teach me anything apart from her clan jutsu. Naruto is busy training for the jounin exam, and he's got Hinata-chan to take care of now. I don't know Yamato-taichou as well as I do the others, and Kakashi-sensei has his own genin group to train. And I think I'll be able to tolerate Sai after so many years with Naruto…Sai really isn't that bad, if you ignore his horrible people skills…"

Tsunade laughed outright at that last comment, before saying, "I suppose that's true. Okay, pack your stuff while I write you a mission scroll. I'm assuming you want to leave as soon as possible?"

Sakura nodded, thankful that her mentor was as understanding as she was.

"And send Sai in on your way out, will you?" Tsunade added.

"I will. Thank you so much, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura gave Tsunade a strained smile. Tsunade returned the smile, and turned to the fresh scroll on her table.

As Sakura exited, Sai entered the room silently, his mind churning out countless possibilities as to why Sakura would suddenly demand ANBU training. Tsunade and Sakura seemed to have reached an understanding though, as Tsunade was hurriedly scribbling on what appeared to be a mission scroll.

"Sai, you are going to train Sakura until she is on par with the ANBU regulations. As of now, the only thing she really needs to work on is her ninjutsu. Her genjutsu is solid, as is her taijutsu, although the latter may need a little bit of a brush up," Tsunade instructed.

"Sakura also seemed to want intense emotional training. However," Tsunade paused, looking Sai straight in the eye. "I do _not_ want you to put her through the emotion training that all ANBU must go through. The thing about Sakura is that while she views her emotions as her greatest weakness, I believe otherwise. Her strong emotions are what drives her to be a better kunoichi. She needs them to survive. Do you understand?"

Sai nodded, although he really _didn't _understand all the fuss about emotions. He knew that being able to feel could be a wonderful thing, but could also leave him in distress. Sakura always seemed to be broken by her emotions, so why in the world would Tsunade-sama want her precious pupil to be a slave to her emotions?

Sai accepted the mission scroll anyway and asked, "When do we depart?"

"Sakura should be ready now," Tsunade briskly replied. "You should pack up and head out as soon as possible."

So before the sun was up and before Uchiha Sasuke had found out the consequences of his drunken night, Haruno Sakura and Sai were out of the village of Konoha.

* * *

**a/n: **Sorry this chapter took longer than usual! I've been real busy with exams and such, and I hit a little snag in chapter 4 (I like to keep one chapter in reserve being posting a chapter). But that's all cleared up now...I spent all night doing that stupid last two pages of chapter 4! But it was worth it, I like the ending a lot better now.

Anyways, it is now officially the end of Sakura and Sasuke...for the readers, at least. Whether Sasuke and Sakura see it this way...you'll have to find out next XD

Please leave a review; tell me whether you liked it, hated it, whatever. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!


	4. It Starts Now

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 4: It Starts Now**

* * *

"We're stopping here," Sai announced, putting down his pack and turning to the pink haired kunoichi several paces behind him. She mirrored his actions, putting down her own bundle and stretching out her limbs.

The two teammates had traveled for about three days, stopping for several hours each night to take turns resting. Sai had been tightlipped as to where they were going, and she was curious as to why.

"Where are we?" she asked, eyeing her surroundings inquisitively.

Sai smiled benignly at her. "That's for me to know and you to find out."

Sakura merely stared, not comprehending his meaning.

"What I mean is," Sai explained, "you have to find out exactly where we are, without asking anyone in the surrounding area. As an ANBU, you will have to be able to recognize the different environments of the different countries so that you will never be lost, wherever you are."

Sakura's eyes lit up in understanding as she said, "I see. How long do I have?"

"Ten minutes. You can explore only a ten meter radius from where I am standing," he replied.

Her eyes widened. "Ten minutes?"

He shrugged. "In a real life situation, you'd be lucky to even have time to thoroughly analyze your position and situation."

Eyes hardening in determination, she nodded and said, "Alright."

She exceeded his expectations when she arrived back at his side in seven minutes.

"So?" he asked, prompting her for their location.

"We're at the border of the Fire Country and the Waterfall Country," she answered correctly. Sai smiled again and nodded.

"That was a diagnostic exercise, Ugly, so don't be too pleased with yourself. You're going to work at your analytical and observation skills until you can identify your surroundings in at least half that time," he lightly said.

A vein twitched on her forehead but she crossed her arms and nodded. Confused as to why she wasn't hitting him, like she usually would have, Sai asked, "Ugly, you're supposed to be hitting me. Why aren't you?"

Her lips twitching slightly, she replied, "Well, you're supposed to be my teacher, aren't you? And I've been brought up to respect teachers…even if it happens to be you."

"Does that mean I can call you all sorts of names and you won't retaliate?" he questioned, already thinking up more nicknames he could call his companion.

"No," she replied, through gritted teeth, frowning as if she already regretted that she requested him as her trainer.

"Oh. Okay, I was just checking." He sent her another smile as he picked up his pack again. She groaned and followed his lead, murmuring, "We're starting up _again_?"

Sai tsked and commented, "If this is the state of your physical fitness, Ugly, the next couple of weeks are going to kill you. This is just the beginning."

Sakura smiled a humorless smile and cursed herself for asking for such training.

* * *

A week or so had passed quicker than Sakura would've thought. While she had initially thought that Sai would be a like a slave driver, she had thought wrong. He worked her hard, yes, but never to the point where she completely depleted her chakra, which was a regular occurrence under Tsunade-sama's tutelage. To her bewilderment, she actually found herself enjoying the training.

On a quiet evening in which she and Sai had both agreed to stop training early, since they had been working harder than usual due to Sakura's difficulty with a particular ninjutsu, Sakura found him writing neatly on a blank scroll. Peering over his shoulder, she found herself entranced by his smooth, flowing calligraphy. She had always known he was the artistic type, but she didn't know it applied to other aspects of his life as well.

"What are you writing?" she asked, curiosity clear in her jade eyes. He finished the last character before answering her.

"I'm supposed to report to Hokage-sama about your progress every week," he replied, summoning one of his ink birds to deliver the scroll to the Godaime.

"Oh. So how am I doing?" she casually asked, slightly afraid of his answer, especially after her dismal performance in the afternoon (she just couldn't seem to master that particularly tricky ninjutsu).

"Nothing spectacular, but not terrible," was his only answer before he changed the topic by saying, "There's a stream a little bit south of here. You should take a bath, Ugly. You stink."

Sticking out her tongue at him, but not denying that fact that she needed freshening up, Sakura stalked out of their tent and into the night. As she washed, she thought about her week.

She had mastered about eight new ninjutsus within the short amount of time, which was a personal victory for her, since she had learned that same amount of jutsus in half a year during her genin days. Sai also insisted on sparring with her at least twice daily, and as a result, she began to notice that her stamina was improving. When they first started, she could only hold him off for around fifteen minutes, but that number was increasing, albeit slowly.

Wringing out her dripping pink locks, Sakura allowed herself to think about Konoha for a while. Ever since leaving her home, she hadn't given the village or its inhabitants a second thought. She realized then that she really missed her friends, especially Naruto and Ino. _And I've only been gone for a week_, she snorted mentally. How was she going to survive months without them?

She was comforted slightly as she saw Sai's familiar silhouette standing outside their tent as she walked back to their campsite. He seemed to be deep in thought, as his dark eyes were focused on the moon high above them, and his hands were stuck deep in his pockets.

Looking at him in the faint moonlight, Sakura couldn't believe she had once thought he looked like Sasuke.

She realized that the only similarities that they shared were their pale, flawless skin and dark hair colour. Apart from the difference in hair length, Sakura noticed for the first time that while Sasuke's hair had a slight blue glow to it, Sai's was truly obsidian black. Sasuke's dark orbs were always so cold, but Sai's weren't. While Sakura couldn't exactly say that Sai's dark eyes were warm, they didn't have the same cool chill that the Uchiha's had. Sai's eyes always seemed to be searching for something – something that Sakura still hadn't discovered yet. Sasuke's features were more sharp and defined where Sai's were softer, more comforting. Especially his lips. Blushing slightly, Sakura couldn't help but think that Sasuke's thin lips could never compare to Sai's fuller ones.

Whacking herself over the head for thinking that way, Sakura hurried back to the tent, where Sai greeted her with a "You smell much better now, Ugly."

All kind thoughts of him banished from her head, Sakura huffed and said, "I'm going to bed."

Sai nodded and answered, "Good choice. We're leaving tomorrow, and you're going to need all the energy you've got."

"We're leaving?" she asked.

"Yes. Within these months, I want us to be able to travel through every single country. We've been in the Waterfall Country for the past week, and tomorrow, we'll be heading somewhere new. I want you to have experience fighting in different landscapes and territories," Sai explained.

"I see," Sakura said, her respect for his intelligence rising slowly. She never would've had the foresight to travel to different places to train – heck, she'd probably just learn a dozen A-ranked jutsus and be done with it.

Sakura crawled back into the tent and rolled out her sleeping bag, eager to let her tired body rest for the night. Yelling out a goodnight to Sai, who answered with a grunt, she closed her eyes and promptly fell asleep, too tired to dwell upon memories and events like she usually did.

Sai entered the tent a while after, intent on following Sakura into dreamland. However, as the moonlight streamed in through the flap in the tent, Sai was instantly taken back to the moment when he had laid Sakura in her bed that fateful night she had gotten hopelessly drunk.

An emotion swelled up within his chest – it had felt alien to him the first time he took note of it, but he realized that it seemed to swell whenever the more vulnerable side of a certain pink haired kunoichi was revealed.

He felt such a great need to do something – anything – to relieve himself of the feeling. Searching almost frantically in his own bag, he drew out a pen and a pad of smooth, blank paper. By the light of the waning moon, he began to sketch.

From the metal nib of his ink pen first flowed the curve of an exposed shoulder, part of the flat plane of a back, and the contrasting texture of a dark blue sleeping bag. An arm gave way down to a sharp elbow, which rose up again and ended with a slender, yet capable-looking hand that was strongly fisted around a pillow. A face with subtle cheekbones came next, accentuated by soft pink lips, a rounded nose, and closed eyes that were framed by feathery lashes that kissed the surface of the skin. And lastly, came locks of smooth hair that teased the jaw line of the sleeping kunoichi.

Jostled out of his sketching reverie by a particularly haunting owl hoot, Sai glanced down at his handiwork. While he normally drew black and white portraits, he had never wished more than now that he had some paints, colour pencils, _anything,_ to add that pink hue to her hair, or that healthy glow to her smooth skin.

Noting that the moon was well on its way to descending from the night sky to give way to dawn, Sai put his book and pen away, intent on catching several hours of sleep. He pulled out his sleeping bag and set it in its usual spot – between the tent flap and Sakura's sleeping bag.

Perhaps the fact that he had sketched 'Ugly' had affected him more than he had thought, for Sai spent a couple of hours rolling around in discomfort before finally able to drift off into a fitful slumber.

* * *

Sakura made no comment as Sai wordlessly emerged from the tent later than her – a rare occurrence. Nor did she sneer at the black smudges under his eyes that marred his milky skin – Sai seemed to have a lot on his mind for some reason, and being the oh-so-sensitive kunoichi she was, Sakura wisely kept quiet.

Sai was not in a good mood, and he didn't know why. The uncomfortable and distracting nudge in his chest called _annoyance_ and _irritation_ kept making him lose his focus, and as a result, it was mid-morning by the time the two had finally managed to set out.

When the two were well on their way, Sakura edged closer to her companion and said, "Hey, are you alright?"

"Worry about yourself, Ugly," was his contrite answer as he sped up, leaving her behind. Frowning, Sakura called out, "Hey! I was trying to be nice…"

Crossing her arms in irritation, she wondered what was causing him to get his drawers in a bunch.

Several paces ahead, Sai mentally wondered why he felt so uncomfortable after lashing out so coldly at Sakura; after all, it wouldn't be the first time he had done it. Maybe it was because it really wasn't her fault that he was feeling so off.

_Oh, but it is…_ the voice in his head said. _You stayed up all night because of the girl, didn't you? You just couldn't get her out of your mind, eh? You know, her piercing green eyes, the soft pink hair that you'd just love to run your hands through -_ Sai abruptly forced the voice to be quiet after that particularly disturbing train of thought.

Sai nearly shuddered in revulsion. He was on a mission, dammit! He was not going to let himself (or his inner voice) get carried away with something as trivial as Sakura's appearance. She _was _Ugly, wasn't she? But damn, those pink strands of hair really looked soft enough for his fingers to run through, especially after she had washed her hair last night-

Sai growled mentally at himself, wishing desperately for the days when emotions were foreign and the voice in his mind lay dormant.

Several uncomfortable days had passed since the two had set off. Sai had closed up once again, speaking to her only when necessary. She found his sudden change quite disconcerting – she liked it a lot better when he talked, even if his words were tactless and sometimes downright rude.

Their strained routine was finally broken one late afternoon by a messenger bird bearing a scroll from Konoha. Sai opened it up, and discovered two other smaller scrolls wrapped inside. Glancing at the name on the two smaller scrolls, he handed them to Sakura, saying, "These are for you, Ugly."

With mumbled thanks, she opened the first one and was greeted with Naruto's messy script.

A small smile bloomed on Sakura's face as she began to read the contents.

_Dear Sakura-chan,_

_I MISS YOU!!!!! When are you coming back to Konoha, huh? S'not just me, everyone misses you too. People have been asking about you and I dunno what to say to them. And the people at the hospital are complaining that their favourite pink-haired medic isn't there to treat them. Poor Shizune-neechan had to explain to each and every patient that you were on a training mission. And Tsunade-baachan looks so frazzled these days. I swear, the wrinkles are going to show soon!_

_Anyways, how're you doing? Is Sai-teme treating you right? He doesn't work you too hard, does he? I'll beat him up for you when you guys get back if he's being mean, 'kay? _

_Guess what, guess what? The Jounin exams are in a week! I can't wait to kick some Chuunin butt! Wish me luck, will ya? Not that I'll be needing it, heehee! I wish you could see me beat the crap out of all them Chuunin…but oh well, Hinata-chan's going to be with me, and she promised to make me ramen afterwards! Can't wait! Oh, she says she misses you too. She's beside me right now._

_Can't talk too much now, Hinata-chan and I are going to train! Have you read Ino's scroll yet? I hope you didn't yet. Mine is better. She says I write like I'm still seven. Tell her I don't, Sakura-chan!_

_And tell Sai-teme that things are kinda boring without him to yell at here. And that he better be nice to you or I'll knock his teeth out next time I see him. He wouldn't want that. _

_Happy training, and come back soon!_

_Love, Naruto & Hinata_

She fondly traced the names of her two friends, noticing that Hinata's name was written with a much neater and flowery script. Sakura let out a sigh and wondered what Naruto would be doing now. With his exuberance and endless stamina, Naruto was probably training…or out eating ramen with Hinata. As Sakura reread the letter, she realized with a pang that Naruto had written nothing about Sasuke.

_He's probably doing great without me, while I've been broken up inside, _she bitterly thought, as she rolled up the scroll and tucked it gently into her shirt. Picking up the scroll that had accompanied the one inside her shirt, Sakura opened it up and was met with the sight of Ino's neat and flowing script.

_Dear Forehead,_

_How's it going? Hope your training's doing okay. Sorry I couldn't come with you…not that I'd be able to teach you anything. I hate to admit it, but you're so far ahead of me…oh well, at least I've got more of a social life than you. _

_Anyways, things are dull around here without you. You better had missed me too, or else I swear I'll tell that creepy admin. guy from the hospital that you've got the hots for him. _

Here, Sakura wrinkled her nose in distaste. The "creepy guy" really was a creep – always leering at her when she passed him in the corridors and trying to ask her out with cheesy pick-up lines.

_Oh, oh! I've got exciting news to tell you! Guess what? I've got a man! Guess who? Haha, you'll never guess. Even __**I**__ didn't see it coming…it's Izumo! I dunno, just all of a sudden one day, I was with him and Kotetsu-san on gate duty and I just noticed how absolutely gorgeous he is. I think I might've told you about that, but I'm not sure. Can't remember that well. But whatever. And oh my gosh he's __**such**__ a gentleman! You won't believe it. And when he asked me out, he was so nervous, it was __**so**__ cute! Well of course I said yes, how could I have refused him? It's only been like, a week, but he's been an AMAZING boyfriend – the best I've had actually!_

_On a side note, Neji-san and Tenten-chan are officially an item! That ice-prick finally came clean with it and even his uncle knows now. Everything exciting is happening now, and you're not here, Forehead-chan. You suck. Oh, and I swear Temari is going to be staying in Konoha forever. She's so incredibly stuck on Shika, but she's got him whipped, so I guess it's a fair trade. I bet he congratulates himself every day for picking up such a great girl – and an older one too! I always thought he'd be too lazy to cater to the needs of a female…damn, guess I was wrong about him...AGAIN! _

_Okay, time for the serious stuff. I don't know how to say this, Sakura…but apparently, Sasuke got some Chuunin chick pregnant. Yeah, that's retarded, eh? I couldn't – wouldn't, believe it at first. But then there were all the talks about an Uchiha wedding coming up, so I guess it's true. It's a real shotgun marriage…I'm sorry, Sakura-chan. But hey, now at least we know he ain't a good one, right? It would've sucked big time if you guys had gotten hooked up and then you found out he was a jerk, cuz then you'd be stuck with him for life. You know, no matter what, you can always talk to me through writing – I'll be there, okay?_

_And don't let Sai work you too hard – give him a good knock on the skull if he's pissing you off. But he's a good shinobi…you're lucky you're getting one-on-one lessons from someone as capable as he is. But you know what, Forehead, I think I'm content staying a Chuunin. Surprisingly, I find my job with the kids really fulfilling, and I'm willing to stay. And this way I get to stay the same rank as Izumo!_

_Love ya lots!_

_Ino_

Sakura zoomed in on four words – "Uchiha wedding coming up,". She sighed sadly, but in the back of her head, she knew that it would be a reality as soon as Sasuke had gotten wind that he was a soon-to-be father. He was like that – when it came to his clan, he paid real attention to things like honor and tradition. And besides, it was _Uchiha_ blood that was running within the veins of the developing infant. Uchiha blood meant that the secret of the Sharingan would be passed on.

Standing up to her full height, Sakura brushed her wind swept hair out of her face and looked towards the horizon, beyond which lay the Fire Country. _Sasuke-kun, I wish you well…in everything. We truly end here, with your impending marriage…_Closing her eyes, Sakura exhaled. When she opened her eyes, there was a smile of acceptance upon her lips.

Turning back to Sai, Sakura said, "Are we good to go?"

Surprised that her mood seemed to pick up so suddenly, Sai gave her a ghost of a smile and a nod, saying, "Any time."

They set off again, in search of a suitable place to make camp. The rays of the setting sun danced brilliantly upon her and the man beside her. Sakura's smile grew wider as she realized that this conclusion to her relationship, this ending to a chapter of her life, was just like a sunset – the rays of the sun were blinding and painful. But as the sun sets at night, it will rise again in the morning. And each new sunrise is more beautiful than the last, more meaningful than the last.

Sakura turned towards the dark-haired male beside her, and sensing her stare, he turned towards her as well. She offered him a tentative smile, and understanding the meaning behind her smile, his eyes softened and another fleeting smile danced on his lips.

Turning back to the brilliant sunset, Sakura couldn't help but be excited for sunrise, unable to wait for the events the next day would bring. Glancing once again at the man beside her, Sakura knew the sunrise on this new chapter of her life would be the most brilliant, most radiant, and the most beautiful one of all.

* * *

**a/n: **If this story were divided into parts, this would be the end of Part I. But meh, w/e. Too lazy. And just as a side note, the angst just about completely finishes at this part. This story will now be geared more towards the action/adventure genre.

Finally, we have some closure with Sasuke. Whew. And Sakura grows stronger yet again through this turbulent period in her life. As to her shinobi abilities...well, you'll just have to see XD

Hope everyone was mostly in character (give me a little bit of leeway XP), and once again, thanks to my awesome friends **Silver Matter** and **tinginkerbell** for their editing efforts!

Please leave a review so I can improve, and enjoy!


	5. When Mission Calls

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 5: When Mission Calls**

**a/n: **This chapter has some (rather poorly-constructed) shinobi code. Try and see what I (or actually, the characters) are trying to convey. If you're really stuck, the answers are at the bottom XD

* * *

Two months had passed since Sakura and Sai first departed from the village of Konoha. Neither of them could believe how fast time had past – the only indication of the time that had gone by were the carefully folded letters from their friends back home. 

Perhaps it was because of their rather fixed routine that caused them to lose track of time. After all, when change is removed from life, time seems to stop because of the constant repetition.

Every morning, Sai would wake before Sakura, and after he was done washing, he would flick his wet towel at her to wake her up. She would respond with grumbled curses, grudgingly get up, and have her turn to wash. After a light breakfast, Sakura would start on her warm-ups – several sets of laps around their camp area and a quick spar with Sai. Then came stealth and target practice, both of which Sakura quickly excelled at. Sakura would then cook them a lunch, Sai would complain about its quality, he would get himself a beating for that, and then he would resignedly do the dishes. Next came the usual ninjutsu lesson, and the occasional taijutsu pointer. Time passed especially fast in the afternoon, its flow interrupted only by laboured breathing and the occasional injury. After dinner, Sai would again do the dishes while Sakura took a bath, and then Sakura would set out their sleeping bags while Sai took his bath. From then until the time they slept, they would sit and literally do nothing. There were the occasional conversations (which often ended with an irritated Sakura and an injured Sai), Sai's drawing sessions (but as to what he drew, Sakura never found out), and Sakura's letter-writing sessions (Sai called her letters sentimental and unnecessary. He got a punch for that.)

Some nights they would train in the dark as well, and the mornings after those nights would generally be a lot more slow-paced.

Once in a while, their conversation would actually go somewhere without getting Sakura pissed off or Sai confused. And it was in those moments that Sakura caught glimpses of the person Sai truly was.

When he told the story of how he had refrained from killing one crying little girl from a town he had been ordered to destroy, she discovered that he was capable of kindness (although he had told her the story to ensure she wouldn't make the same "mistake" as he did).

When, by firelight one night, he had hesitantly told her the story of how his brother had taken a kunai in the chest for him, Sakura discovered that apart from being capable of feeling guilt, Sai was also capable of feeling gratitude.

And when, one gray morning, she had found Sai standing outside, letting the rain wash over him, Sakura discovered that Sai liked the rain. And as she watched the rivulets of liquid run from his drenched form into the ground below, Sakura decided that she liked the rain too.

And in return, Sakura began to tell him stories about herself too – she began to find it uncomfortable that though they had been teammates for a good three years, they still didn't know each other that well.

She told him about how she had been bullied as a little girl for her supposedly big forehead. He responded by telling her that her forehead _was_ hideously large.

She refrained from hitting him.

She told him about how Ino had come to her defense. He said that Ino was stupid for getting mixed-up with someone as ugly as she was.

Sakura cracked her knuckles menacingly.

She told him how Ino had once said that she wasn't a flower yet, but merely a bud that would one day bloom. Sai, ignoring his instinct to keep quiet, informed her that she was merely a bud that had gotten eaten by a bug.

She socked him in the jaw.

But, hidden by his teasing of her, Sai was actually making many observations about his teammate. For example, he noticed that whenever Sakura was getting upset or frustrated, she would bite her lip and clutch at the left corner of her skirt-like apparel. And whenever she was pleased, she would unconsciously hum underneath her breath. And she also had an uncanny fear of spiders – there had been more than one occasion in which Sakura had forcibly vacated Sai from his own sleeping bag to tell him to kill a spider that was too close to her.

It was through all these small moments that Sai began to truly understand the roseate kunoichi. But more than that, he began to understand the difficulty of being a kunoichi – the difficult balance between being just a girl and being a female warrior. He had never seen it before – he had always seen kunoichi as mere shinobi who had an added advantage of seduction. Well, the pretty ones anyways.

Never before had he realized that being a kunoichi was so tough at times. He could see it in Sakura's eyes when, on a rare occasion, she would peer into a pond or river and see her own reflection. She would reach up to finger her often unruly locks, and sigh. Sometimes she would find a spot on her face, and she'd poke at it while shuffling around, checking to see that he wasn't looking. When she changed at night, he would sometimes see the silhouette of her painstakingly unwrapping her (rather uncomfortable looking) chest bindings through the tent fabric from his position outside. But most of all, he knew that whenever it was her time of the month, she still trained relentlessly, although the clink of pills inside her shirt told him she was suppressing the pain she felt.

Sai found himself not only beginning to respect Haruno Sakura more, but also all the kunoichi that he had come in contact with.

* * *

A week later, Sai and Sakura were out of supplies. Deep within the misty plains of the Cloud Country, they had to trek for two days before finally finding a town that could offer the supplies they needed. When Sakura grumbled, Sai replied that she could take it as more survival training. She rolled her eyes but decided to do him a favour and kept quiet.

After replenishing their food stores, Sakura found a decent and quaint-looking ramen shop that offered the exact ramen that they had eaten daily at Konoha's Ichiraku Ramen Stand. Feeling a wave of nostalgia hit her, Sakura insisted that they sit down for a bowl (or two) of the comforting food.

Halfway into their meal, Sai tensed up. Sakura noticed only by the slight stiffness in his posture and the slower pace that he ate his ramen at.

Frowning at him, she made to ask him what was wrong but he sharpened his gaze at her. She took it as a sign to keep quiet, so she did. Without moving his head or interrupting his eating, he gestured farther into the restaurant with his eyes. Mirroring his actions, she found the man Sai had found so interesting.

There was nothing spectacular about the man she was looking at, apart from the fact that he was wearing a forehead protector that proclaimed he was a shinobi from the Cloud Village. She turned back to Sai, who had started speaking.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, do you know how to play bingo?"

Sakura stared dumbfounded at the male in front of her. Of all things to talk about…bingo? And what was up with the whole "Sakura-chan" thing? She also noticed his forehead protector had disappeared within the couple of seconds she had spent examining the Cloud shinobi.

"I have a book about it. I'd play with you, but I'm missing the chips. D'you think I should hire a nin to help me find them?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. Was this some kind of a joke? What exactly did that gibberish have anything to do with that man he had been all hyped up about? The way Sai was talking made him seem like some village dolt who didn't know a thing about the way of the ninja.

As Sakura's mind processed Sai's words again, the answer came to her and her eyes widened. Reaching up to her own hair, she removed her own forehead protector-turned-headband under the pretense of finger combing her hair. Formulating her own reply, she said, "I don't know. Would they take the chips back home for you? Or would they just leave the chips alone?"

Sai snorted in fake laughter. "Of course they'd take the chips back home for me. Or else, why would I pay them?"

Sakura laughed falsely as well, and answered, "Of course, silly me."

Quickly paying the bill, the two left and began walking as if they were just two people strolling down the musty street.

"So…do we take him out?" Sakura quietly asked, bending over the stand of a street vendor to look at a particularly fetching piece of jewelry.

"Rhetorical question," Sai replied, looking past her shoulder at the necklace in her hand. "The question is, how and when."

"True enough," Sakura agreed, putting the necklace down. "I suppose somewhere away from the civilians would be the best."

"Yes," Sai replied, taking her hand and leading her to another jewelry vendor several paces ahead. Sakura's act dropped slightly as she felt the warm pressure of his hand press into hers. He simply smiled his fake smile and said, "This is a lot less conspicuous."

Sakura murmured something unintelligible and turned away from him to look at a ring.

"This village is in a pretty desolate area, surrounded by open plain. A place devoid of civilians will not be hard to find. We just have to make sure he gets there," Sai said, giving her a ring to try on. Sakura took the ring and said, "Yes. But we don't know the scope of his abilities…"

Sai interrupted her by saying, "I do. I've memorized the bingo book from back to front. I should get you to do that too, Ugly."

Sakura smiled (a bit too) brightly and tapped him on the nose affectionately, as if she was just this guy's girlfriend and he had said something to amuse her. But Sai knew her better than that. He was quite certain that his nose had a date with Sakura's chakra-infused fist sometime in the near future.

"Back to the point though. This guy is not quite an S-rank criminal, but we can never be too careful. He specializes in Katon jutsu, so we obviously should use Suiton jutsu to counter that. The environment is also in our favor, since the moisture in the air will decrease the effectiveness of his fire jutsu."

Sai casually draped an arm around Sakura's shoulder and steered them into a much quieter café, intent on creating a more structured plan. Much to Sakura's dismay, she found her heart rate speeding up at his closeness. Physically proximity during sparring and training never bothered her before, so why was her body acting up like this? Sakura couldn't deny the fact that he was (drop-dead) gorgeous and smelled rather nice (she _did _wonder what soap he used), but that didn't quite make up for his atrocious personality.

_An atrocious personality that's getting better as you know him!!!_ Inner Sakura chose to make her opinion clear at that moment, causing Sakura to unconsciously scowl.

Noticing, Sai gave her another fake smile and said, "Your act is dropping. Smile or I'll make you seduce the missing-nin into an open area."

"You wouldn't dare," Sakura said in honeyed tones while slapping on a syrupy smile.

"Try me," Sai replied just as sweetly. Sakura chose to dimple at him but inside she was seething, as well as horribly flustered. While she had been a jounin for a couple years, she had never been sent on _that_ kind of mission. Yet. Tsunade had always said that Sakura's talent would be wasted on missions like those. She was far more useful on field missions with her team. Sai had said that Tsunade just needed an excuse because Sakura was too ugly to be able to seduce _anyone_, even perverted old men, to give up information.

Satisfied that the café was full of civilians who minded their own business, Sai said, "Ugly, I'm actually serious about you seducing that missing-nin into a place that would suit our fighting."

Sakura's jaw dropped. "What. Did. You. Say??"

"I said," Sai repeated, until a furious-looking Sakura stopped him from speaking further.

"Okay, okay. I understand that this is part of what may be expected of a kunoichi, but still. I have absolutely _no_ experience in missions like these. And I don't think you'd like it if I screwed this one up. Right?" she asked hopefully.

Sai shrugged and said, "There's a first time for everything, Ugly. According to the bingo book, he likes his women. So just throw a lot of compliments at him and act feminine or something like that. It shouldn't be too much of a challenge, even for someone as ugly as you."

Sakura mentally dismembered Sai once again as she thought it over. Practically speaking, it _was_ a pretty good idea. Approaching him as a couple would be rather suspicious, and it wasn't as if the two of them could drug his drink and just drag him back to Konoha. The missing-nin obviously wasn't going to fall for any story that the two might concoct, so why not target his weakness for women?

Glaring at him, she poked him hard in the chest and said, "Fine, but you owe me one."

"Owe you one?" Sai asked. "You're not doing me a favor, Ugly. You're doing this for Konoha."

Sakura removed her finger slowly, and placed her hands in her lap. She couldn't believe what she had been saying before. Complaining just because she had never been asked to do something like that? She was a kunoichi of Konoha, and it was pretty damn well known that kunoichi of Konoha were strong.

Eyes shining in determination, Sakura said, "Yes. For Konoha."

"Mhmm," Sai nodded, slightly amused at the way his companion had steeled herself.

In twenty minutes, Sai and Sakura had outlined their plan. After locating their target, Sakura would go ahead and try to get the missing-nin to go with her to the rather deserted south side of the village. Sai would be there already, with traps set up to hopefully gain an upper hand on the missing-nin before he realizes that something is off. Sakura would also try to cast a genjutsu on the missing-nin to increase the chances of Sai pulling off a surprise attack. In case all else fails, the two's combined strength and skill would be enough to take him down in an all-out fight.

So with most of her weapons relinquished to Sai, Sakura bravely stepped into the ramen shop that their target was still in. He was still sitting in that seat, eating what appeared to be his fourth bowl of ramen.

_Reminds me of someone I know…_Sakura quietly thought, as she made her way slowly over. Her chest bindings had been hurriedly removed and the zipper of her red vest had been pulled down to reveal a sufficient amount of whatever cleavage that she had. Her elbow guards and black gloves were nowhere to be found. The buckles on her skirt-like piece of clothing had been tightened to the maximum so that the cloth wrapped tightly around her posterior and thighs, making it seem as if she really were wearing a skirt. With only a dozen senbon tucked into her long black boots and the raw chakra in her system, Sakura had never felt more vulnerable.

With a small drink in her hand, Sakura slowly sidled up to the man. Up close, he really didn't look like he belonged in the bingo book. Everything about him screamed 'innocent and clueless civilian'. But as he turned around to look at her, Sakura recognized the look in his eyes – his eyes had the cold glint of a seasoned killer.

"Hey there, big boy," Sakura coyly purred, looking at him through her dense lashes. A self-absorbed smirk curled on his lips as he replied, "Hey there, sweetheart."

Sakura giggled, and said, "I came in for a drink, and I couldn't help but notice the muscles you've got there." Running a finger delicately up the man's large biceps, Sakura couldn't help but think Sai's toned muscles were a lot more attractive.

"Hey girlie, if you think those are worth checking out, wait 'til you see the rest," he replied with a crude wink. Sakura rolled her eyes internally, not believing this guy could be so straight-up about his desires, but fluttered her eyelashes and giggled again.

The missing-nin hastily wiped his mouth, plunked several bills on the table and swooped down to land a kiss on Sakura's lips. Knowing his intention, Sakura turned her face away and put her hand up, causing him to kiss the back of her hand.

"Playing hard to get, eh?" he smacked his lips, not at all fazed by her behaviour. She giggled and averted her gaze, a charming blush on her cheeks. However, that wasn't an embarrassed blush – it was an angry flush. But it worked all the same.

"We're in public," she simpered. "A girl has shame, you know."

"Then why don't we relocate to a more…_suitable_ location, eh girlie?" he asked, tilting her face back to him with a finger.

Sakura giggled again and got up with him, and linking arms with him, headed out the door.

What the missing-nin didn't know was that all the time they had been flirting, only one of Sakura's hands was visible. The other one had been under the table, doing one-handed hand seals that had created a flawless genjutsu. His sense of reality now a slave to Sakura's will, as they hurried down the street.

Several giggling-full minutes later, Sakura's mouth muscles were sore from all the fake laughing and smiling. She believed she had also used up her flirting tactics for the rest of the year too. But for the sake of the mission, it would be worth it. Besides, the man seemed to be buying it too.

From his hidden vantage point, Sai could now see Sakura and man strolling towards their target location. He was not surprised that Sakura had managed to successfully get the missing-nin to follow her – after all, for all her innocence, Sakura did have some quirks that were apparently highly tempting for most men. Except Sai wasn't like most men, so he really didn't notice. Until he had overheard some Konoha jounin talking rather crudely about her. He had never known that Sakura had so many admirers.

Thinking back to the situation at hand, Sai finally noticed what Sakura's many admirers were always talking about. He could see everything Sakura was doing to the missing-nin. It was the slightly coy, yet confident way she held herself. And the way she fluttered her eyelashes ever so harmlessly. And the way she would place fleeting touches to the man's arms, face, chest…Sai felt himself getting uncharacteristically worked up about her actions. That man had no right to Sakura's affections, however fake they were. He was a no-good, perverted murderer, and-

Sai's musings were cut off when the two wandered into his hearing range.

"Why'd you take me to the south side of town, girlie? It's so empty, it probably isn't very safe," the missing-nin said.

"Really?" Sakura looked innocently oblivious. Her expression faded to surprise as the nin disentangled himself from her.

"Alright girlie, you've had your fun, so now it's my turn," he said, his expression turning malicious.

"Huh?" Sakura asked, a slightly fearful expression on her face.

"I'm giving you ten seconds to run while I release that genjutsu of yours, alright?" he said, a rather maniacal smile plastered on his face.

Sakura never wavered from her position beside the missing-nin though. But, feeling a silent presence beside him, Sai couldn't help but smile a little bit. For all the faults from her strong emotions, Sakura was one of the stealthiest shinobi he had ever worked with. When she wanted to be undetected, even _he_ had trouble finding her.

In several seconds, her genjutsu had faded and it wouldn't be long until the missing-nin would be able to sense Sai. From his vantage point, Sai saw the missing-nin turn to Sakura and say, "Alright, since you still haven't run, I'm going to finish you off, girlie."

A swift punch landed right on Sakura's face, but imagine the nin's surprise when the clone disappeared with a puff of white smoke.

Turning to the girl next to him, Sai smiled, a true one, and said, "Shall we go?"

Sakura grinned back and replied, "You don't even have to ask."

* * *

**a/n: **Ah, another chapter :) This one was kinda fun to write. At the end. I had to literally unplug my Internet and take my laptop into my own room and shut the door to write, because I was getting completely distracted by the wonders that the Internet has to offer...aka Livejournal and deviantART XD

So, for those of you who weren't able to figure out that (rather poorly-constructed) shinobi code, here is what it meant (or was supposed to mean):

"Ne, Sakura-chan, do you know how to play **bingo**?"

"I have a **book **about it. I'd play with you, but I'm **missing **the chips. D'you think I should hire a **nin **to help me find them?"

"I don't know. Would they take the chips back **home **for you? **Or **would they **just leave** the chips **alone**?"

"**Of course** they'd take the chips back **home **for me. Or else, why would I pay them?"

Basically, it's all jargon about the bingo book and missing-nins, and Sakura's asking whether they should deviate from their current training mission to take this guy out or just leave him to the hunter nins.

So once again, many thanks to my wonderful betas - I absolutely would not be able to post this without them. :)

I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and please tell me how you liked/not liked it :D


	6. A New Stage

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 6: A New Stage**

* * *

"You know, for a shinobi in the bingo book, he really wasn't that hard to beat," Sakura mused, as she methodically cleaned up the various minor injuries the two sported.

Sai had to agree; the fight had barely lasted fifteen minutes, and their wounds were superficial compared to what they had been through before. Sakura had several shallow cuts from stray kunai and a burn from a particularly nasty Katon jutsu about the size of her hand, and all Sai had were several bruises in varying degrees of swollenness, all of which had been healed by Sakura within ten minutes.

"Perhaps we got lucky. I've run across shinobi who got put into bingo books purely by association. Don't let this be an ego-boost, Ugly," Sai said lightly, while waiting for her to finish packing up her medical supplies. Internally, however, he was quite happy with the fact that Sakura had held up so well against that nin. Not only was it her first time playing a seductress, but it was also (technically) her first ANBU mission.

"I'm not the one with the big ego," Sakura muttered under her breath, but she remembered his words all the same. It was true that shinobi should never let their achievements get to their head – even if you had just successfully exterminated a supposedly dangerous missing-nin from the bingo book.

"So…where are we off to next?" Sakura asked, finally ready, with her backpack straps tight around her shoulders.

"Well…it _has_ been two months since we've been in Konoha, right? So I was thinking we could go back for a week or two, as a vacation, for us to see friends and such. And besides, in Konoha, there are actual bathhouses, and I really think you need a real one. You still stink, Ugly," he smiled at her. With a twitching vein in her forehead, Sakura grabbed Sai by his collar and socked him in the jaw.

"If I stink, you do too!" she growled, dropping Sai in a heap on the ground. Said male got up slowly and rubbed his bruising jaw, muttering, "That really hurt."

"And I don't need a vacation, Sai. Can't we just train more?" Sakura asked, her expression now devoid of irritation.

Shaking his head, Sai replied, "There really is no need for more training. You are just about up to ANBU standards, so all you need now is just practice, and maybe the occasional ninjutsu. We could do that all in the village. Besides, I also have to report to Hokage-sama about you _and_ that missing-nin we just got rid of. So even if you don't need a vacation, _I_ need one away from you."

Sakura sighed, and to Sai's surprise, smiled softly. "I really am annoying, aren't I?"

Sai tipped his head to his side and said, "I never said that. I just said you're ugly. Ugly and annoying are two different things."

Sakura's jade eyes widened, and then softened with gratitude. "Thanks Sai," she softly said, giving him a hand up from the hard ground he was still on. He accepted her hand and got up, brushing himself up.

"Well…sometimes you're so ugly that you're annoying," Sai added in afterthought.

Sakura's punch landed on his nose, causing him to fall back onto the moist ground.

Turning around in the direction of the Fire Country and home, Sakura started walking and said, "See you in Konoha, you bastard."

Noticing there was no anger in her voice, only exasperation and faint amusement, Sai got up (again) and followed her, an invisible smile upon his lips.

* * *

"I don't know how much I've missed Konoha," Sakura softly intoned, as she and Sai came upon the achingly familiar walls of their home.

"But weren't you just saying before how you didn't want to go home?" Sai questioned, tipping his head slightly to the side. He just didn't understand her sometimes – she often said what she didn't mean and mean what she didn't say. To Sai, things were still easier without emotions to mess them up.

Sakura didn't answer but continued to smile. Shrugging, he stuck his hands in his pockets and reached the gates. Giving a cheerful wave to the two chuunin on gate duty, he strolled in. Noticing that he was walking alone, Sai turned back to see Sakura hesitating at the gate, her smile gone.

Frowning, he called, "Hey, Ugly? What's keeping you?"

Biting her lip, Sakura turned away, unable to keep his gaze. Now that she was back at Konoha, Sai's gaze once again reminded her of another dark-haired man.

"Hey Ugly, right now, you smell so bad that you don't have to worry at all about running into Uchiha. He'll just run in the opposite direction anyways."

Sakura's head shot up, surprised that he had caught onto her uncertainty so quickly. She could see the ghost of a smile on his lips – something that, no matter how hard he might try, Sasuke would never be able to replicate.

Knowing it was Sai's retarded way of telling her everything would be okay, she smiled and said, "Alright."

After two long and tiring, albeit fruitful months, they were finally home.

* * *

"SAKURA-CHANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Sai and Sakura froze in their tracks, turning to be greeted with the sight of Naruto hurtling towards them. In the blink of an eye, Sakura was suddenly knocked backwards with the force of Naruto's (overly) affectionate embrace.

"Oh look, it's the dickless wonder," Sai said, looking down at Naruto. He scowled up at Sai but soon turned back to Sakura when said kunoichi said, "Naruto, get off of me."

"Sorry," Naruto sheepishly rubbed his head while the green-eyed kunoichi dusted herself off (not that the extra dust made any difference to her disheveled appearance).

"It's been a while, hasn't it, Naruto?" she smiled warmly at one of her two best friends. Slapping on his signature grin, Naruto answered, "Yeah! Too long! And guess what, Sakura-chan?"

Humoring him, Sakura laughed and answered, "What?"

"I'm a jounin now!" Naruto announced, puffing out his chest proudly.

"Congratulations!" shrieked Sakura, utterly delighted that her friend had come one step closer to achieving his dream of becoming the Hokage.

"And Hinata-chan made it too!" he went on, looking hopelessly proud of his white-eyed girlfriend.

Sakura's smile turned slightly wistful as Naruto happily proclaimed the news. How she had longed for such steadfast support and love from Sasuke…but that felt like an eternity ago. While she still wanted the support and encouragement, it would be have to be from a different man now.

"Hey Dickless, can you let Ugly go home and shower before she kills the village with her stench?" Sai interrupted Sakura's musings with another well-timed, yet rather tactless, comment.

"You smell worse than Sakura-chan," Naruto replied, blowing a wet raspberry at the dark-haired ink-user.

"Ha! Told you!" Sakura pointed accusingly at Sai, who shrugged and replied, "I never denied the fact that I probably smell."

"You're hopeless," Sakura moaned. Sai merely dimpled at her and waved to Naruto, turning to go. Sakura gave Naruto a smile and a squeeze and headed off behind Sai in the direction of the local bathhouse, eager for a good soak.

"Hey, Sai?" Sakura ventured, speeding up slightly to catch up to him. Sai unconsciously slowed down a little to accommodate her pace and replied, "Yes?"

"Thank you."

Confused, Sai asked, "For what?"

"For training me. I never got around to thanking you for that," Sakura replied, a smile lighting up her delicate features. "You're a good friend, you know?"

With a small bubble of laughter, Sakura sped off, leaving Sai far behind.

"A good friend…" Sai repeated to himself. Watching the small cloud of dust behind the retreating kunoichi get smaller with distance, he smiled slightly and murmured, "I think I rather like the sound of that."

* * *

Sakura couldn't help but let out a loud sigh of relief and contentment as she sunk her tired body into the steaming depths of the water. Ignoring the babbling gossip of the women around her, Sakura closed her eyes and relaxed, feeling more secure and freer than she had in weeks.

Her serenity didn't last long as a loud voice shrieked, "Sakura!!!!!!!"

"Hey Ino," Sakura cracked one eye open and flashed her best female friend a wide grin.

Ino promptly crushed Sakura in a tight embrace, causing a small tidal wave in the water. Pulling back, she held Sakura at an arm's length and said, "When did you come back? And why didn't you stop by my place?"

"I just got back. And Sai kept complaining that I smelled funky, so I decided to clean up a bit before seeing anyone," Sakura explained.

Still holding Sakura in her grasp, Ino studied her friend critically. Sighing with affectionate exasperation, Sakura said, "Does my appearance meet your expectations?"

"Hmm…you don't look as malnourished as I thought you would look…your ribs don't stick out, that's good…but damn, girl, you've gotten real fit!" Ino crowed, examining one of Sakura's toned arms.

"Hell yeah, training non-stop from daybreak to evening every day for two months does that to a person," Sakura snorted, taking back her arm.

"No way," Ino covered her mouth. "Sai-kun worked you _that_ hard?"

Nodding, Sakura replied, "It really wasn't _that_ bad. I learned a lot more than I could have here. And I learned a lot about him on the way too."

Ino's lips warped into a coy smile as the blond female said, "Oh, Sakura…you and Sai…?"

Simultaneously choking and blushing, Sakura wheezed, "What the hell?"

Laughing, Ino thumped Sakura on the back and answered, "I was just kidding! But honestly, Forehead, Sai-kun would be _quite_ the catch."

Fixing her friend with an "are-you-stupid" look, Sakura said, "You weren't the one who spent three years with him on your team."

Biting her finger thoughtfully, Ino replied, "Yeah, I suppose that's true. But look at it this way – he's an elite, specialized ANBU, so he's way beyond jounin level. He's absolutely gorgeous, you can't deny that. And he's nice when he wants to be. What more can you ask for?"

"Sai? Nice?" Sakura asked incredulously. Tilting her head at her friend, Ino replied, "Yeah?"

Turning away, Sakura couldn't help but agree that Sai really _could_ be nice if he wanted to. Like when she was all messed up over Sasuke, he was a lot more supportive than she would have expected, and he even agreed to train her, and-

_Waitwaitwaitwait…_this was _Sai_ she was thinking about. While Inner Sakura melted into a pool of goo at the thought of Sai being nice, the _real_ Sakura shook her head violently, trying to clear her traitorous mind of the thoughts.

Noticing her friend's actions, Ino rolled her eyes and sighed. Sakura _really_ didn't know how to appreciate what was in front of her.

"Anyway, Forehead, it really _is_ time for you to get a new guy. Honestly, there are _so_ many other decent guys here that you shouldn't be hung up over that loser Sasuke anymore," Ino began. Sakura shook her head and smiled wryly, knowing that once Ino got started, she would go on forever.

"Really, Forehead, Kiba isn't that bad – he's pretty gorgeous without that stupid hood of his on…"

Here Sakura rolled her eyes – even with a boyfriend, Ino never stopped her wandering eye.

"…and Lee-san is quite sweet, if you don't mind his extravagant mannerisms,"

Sakura nearly choked – Lee was sweet, yes, sweet enough to give her cavities and toothaches.

"…Shino-san's the mysterious, brooding type, you might like that, since Sasuke was like that,"

Sakura couldn't help but think that _Sasuke_ moodiness and brooding was rather sexy, while _Shino_ moodiness and brooding was rather creepy.

"…too bad Neji-san and Shika are both taken, they would've been good…"

Neji – the one who constantly wore an expression that clearly said 'I'm-so-much-better-than-you', and Shikamaru, someone who was Konoha's self-proclaimed lazy bastard.

Sakura shook her head.

"…but if you wanna go for someone older than that, there's always Kotetsu-san, he's still free, and we'd be able to double date more 'cause they're friends like we are…or Genma, he's quite the looker, isn't he?"

Shiranui Genma, apart from being "quite the looker", also had a reputation for being a bit of a playboy. Actually, "a bit" was a rather grave understatement.

Sighing, Sakura stopped her friend's tirade by saying, "Look, Ino, I'll get a guy when I _want_ to and when I _find_ someone worthwhile, 'kay? And you'll be the first to know, 'kay?"

"Fine, fine," Ino groused, clearly put-off at the fact that Sakura wasn't appreciating her 'help', "but he better be someone good for you. Heaven knows you don't need another Sasuke…"

Sakura's throat tightened slightly at her friend's honest words. It was true; Sakura didn't know what she would do if she got her heart broken again.

"Erm…Ino, how _has_ been Sasuke doing lately?" Sakura asked, rather lamely.

Giving her friend a look of disbelief, Ino shook her head and answered, "Don't know why you'd still wanna know about him, but since you asked, he got married to what's-her-name. Starts with an 'a', I think."

"I…see…" Sakura slowly intoned.

"If it makes you feel any better, he totally ignores her. It's like two strangers living in one house – I heard from Naruto that Sasuke opened a bank account for her and tells her to get whatever she needs, whether it be food or whatever, by herself," Ino informed her.

"That's not very nice of him," Sakura mumbled, feeling rather sorry for the girl. If _that_ had been the life Amaya had been living, Sakura felt the last traces of anger at the girl evaporate – no matter how much she had hated Amaya for having Sasuke's baby, no woman deserved to be treated like that, much less by her own husband.

"Che," Ino snorted, "I just _don't_ understand why you're so sympathetic. I mean, dammit, this girl is carrying Sasuke's _baby_! _Your_ ex-boyfriend's baby! Hell, if it were me, I'd be raging."

It was Sakura's turn to be snorting as she replied, "Yeah, well that's you, Ino-pig."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ino rolled her eyes. "We'd better get out before we turn into prunes, Forehead."

* * *

"So, you finally decided to drag your ass back, Sakura," Tsunade scowled at the freshly scrubbed Sakura, who was standing in front of her cluttered desk.

Sakura grinned. "It's great to see you too, shishou."

Tsunade's expression relaxed and she flashed her student a smile.

"Everyone's missed you here. People at the hospital are always asking me why you aren't around," Tsunade laughed. Sakura joined her, and after several moments of laughter, the younger kunoichi said, "I should probably head over and say hello to all of them after, just to make sure they don't think that I've died."

"Well, judging by Sai's report, I assume training went well?" Tsunade questioned, gesturing down at an opened scroll bearing a familiar and artistic script.

Sakura found herself a little surprised yet very happy that Sai had written what seemed like positive things in the report. She nodded and replied, "I've learned _so_ much in these two months. Especially in terms of ninjutsu."

Tsunade smirked and said, "I'd be pissed if you came back with no new skills. Those _were_ my instructions, after all. I had told him to drill on your ninjutsu. Everything else was fine, all you needed was to hone the skills that you already had."

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama," Sakura smiled, grateful that her teacher really _did_ know her very well. Even without asking, the Hokage had known exactly what Sakura wanted (and needed) to work on. But that was probably due to the years that the two had worked together.

"I'd love to chitchat some more with you, especially over sake," Tsunade winked, "but I've got some rather important-looking scrolls that I gotta take a look at. Come see me tomorrow morning, alright?"

"I will," Sakura promised, as she turned around to leave. Opening the door, she stepped outside and paused to say, "You know, Tsunade-sama, you really could just ask Shizune-neechan to do that stuff for you!"

Giving her teacher one last cheeky wink, Sakura left. Tsunade grinned wickedly and snapped her fingers.

"Shizune!"

* * *

"Ah, this feels so nice," Sakura crowed, as she face-planted herself onto her soft bed. She hadn't been in her room in two months, and as such, things were a little dusty. Thanks to Ino's frequent visits, however, the sheets and such were clean and her apartment was more airy than she would have expected. Sakura _knew_ she had a good reason for keeping Ino around.

Finally mustering up the will to get up from her comfortable position, Sakura yawned and stretched, heading over to her dresser to find a pair of comfy pajamas.

Picking out a stretchy camisole and cotton shorts, Sakura changed, and turned out the lights. Tucking herself into bed, she sighed in happiness and was about to close her eyes when she felt a presence enter her room.

Moving on instinct alone, her hand wrapped around a kunai she kept under her pillow and within a second, that kunai was embedded in her bedroom wall, where the intruder had been less than a second ago.

In the intruder's place was a scroll with the Hokage's seal on it. Wrenching her kunai out of the wall, she sat down and examined the scroll. Sakura had no doubt that it was delivered by an ANBU member – not many shinobi were capable of dodging a kunai she threw on instinct. She felt her heart pound in anticipation as she opened the scroll and caught a glimpse of black ink on white paper.

By the dim streetlight filtering through her translucent curtains, Sakura could read seven simple words:

_Come to the Hokage Tower right away._

* * *

**a/n: **I'm SOOOOOOOOOOO sorry for the lonnnnnng wait! So, so, so, SO sorry. I hope you guys didn't think I gave up on this story. So are you guys ready to hear my excuses? XD

Well basically, I've been working and all (as a counselor at a children's day camp) and I've been coming home late and exhausted. Damn, those kids have SO MUCH ENERGY. Gosh, not even an ice cap kept me awake, and that's _really_ saying something for me. And this chapter was rather hard to write. Actually, REALLY hard to write. I just couldn't string some scenes together. And I kinda got addicted to Blood+. heehee.

Anyways, now I'm back on track and hopefully, I'll update as often as I used to. Mmm, by the way, have you guys read the latest Naruto chapter? OMGOMGOMG!!!!!!! Akatsuki members _finally_ revealed. Can't say more - go check it out yourselves :D

And sorry about the lack of a battle scene - let's just put it to you this way: I SUCK at writing action scenes. And I didn't have the patience to. But don't worry; action will come up later.

Last thing: Sorry, this chapter isn't beta-d, so please excuse any mistakes and just drop me a note and I'll fix it. Thank you very much, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

**EDIT: **Chapter is now beta-d! yay! Anyways, just some minor grammar stuff. And by the way, "Dickless wonder" was for you, Silver Matter! ;) I forgot to mention that when I mailed you XD


	7. The Troublesome Client

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 7: The Troublesome Client**

* * *

In less than five minutes, a dressed but confused Sakura showed up inside the Hokage's office. The Hokage herself was still in her day clothes, looking exceptionally peeved. Sakura was surprised to find Sai was in the room also, looking as disgruntled as his relatively emotionless face could allow.

"You two," Tsunade began, "have a mission."

Sakura shot Sai a furtive glance, but found that his eyes were trained on her teacher. As she turned her own eyes back to the front, Tsunade began talking again.

"As you both know, the Fire daimyo and his wife are currently in Konoha. This visit had been quite a surprise, which might explain the huge explosion of gossip and impromptu decorations."

A vein on the Godaime's forehead twitched, but Sakura and Sai wisely made no comment, and the blonde soon went on.

"According to the Fire daimyo, there are indications that missing-nin from the Fire Country want to make attempts on his and his wife's lives soon."

"What exactly _are _these indications?" Sai asked.

"He was evasive about that," Tsunade growled, clearly annoyed. "Said he got them from a 'reliable' source and just continued to say he was hiring a couple of my shinobi."

"So, you want us to protect them?" Sakura guessed.

Tsunade scowled and shook her head. "That's what I had suggested to him, but you have to know, Sakura, that our daimyo is possibly the most paranoid man ever to walk the face of the earth! He _requested_ that I have two ANBU impersonate his wife and himself, while he and his wife are kept safe in the village, and when the attackers come, to take them out."

Sai, who had been deep in thought and silent apart from his first question, spoke up.

"Tsunade-sama, I understand what you have been saying so far, but I don't see why two ANBU are necessary. From what I gather, you have doubts about the validity of his claims. If we aren't even sure that there _will_ be an attack on them, I don't think we should rush into anything."

"I know, I know," Tsunade answered irritably. "The problem is that the bastard practically _ordered_ me to do it! And although I'm the Hokage, without the support of the daimyo, I'm as good as sacked! I wouldn't have to assign this to you two, but he specifically requested ANBU. I cannot spare any other ANBU for this, as our village security will need to be tightened if the daimyo and his wife are staying here. Sai has been in ANBU for years, and Sakura, you've just about cleared the ANBU requirements. Together, you should be enough for the so-called threat the daimyo keeps ranting about."

"One question, shishou," Sakura ventured. Tsunade looked at her and nodded.

"Even if you don't want to spare your best ANBU for this, why us? We've just gotten back, and I'm pretty sure there are more ANBU at our level," Sakura said.

"You two have working experience with each other, and know each other relatively well. The thing about ANBU is that you really don't know your teammates – everything is said and done beneath those masks. You two are different – since you'll need to be posing as a married couple, you'll have to at least appear to be in tune with each other," Tsunade shrugged.

It was then that the full scope of the mission fully hit Sakura.

"You want _me_, to play _his_ wife?" Sakura slowly asked, turning her gaze from her teacher to the teenager beside her.

"Yeah, that's the idea," Tsunade replied, looking a little bit more cheerful at the thunderstruck look on her student's face.

"Tsunade-sama, you know that I have no experience whatsoever with formalities and such," Sakura griped. Tsunade lifted an eyebrow.

"Haven't you heard of 'learning on the job'?"

"B-but…" Sakura sputtered, gesturing wildly at Sai. "H-him?"

"Are you saying there's something wrong with me, Ugly?" Sai asked, turning to Sakura.

Sakura huffed and replied, "No, it's just…I just don't understand why we can't do more research, have a plan, and _then_ strategically take out the attackers!"

"Politics," Tsunade glumly replied, thinking back to her heated conversation with the daimyo.

Sai turned away from Sakura and asked, "When does the mission start?" He ignored Sakura's exclaim of protest, or her mumbled, "I _so _didn't agree to this yet, you bastard."

"In the morning," Tsunade answered. "The two of them are supposed to leave for home tomorrow, so _you_ two will have to 'become' the daimyo and his wife by tomorrow morning. You will both have a brief meeting with them, just so you will have a chance to pick up on their mannerisms and personalities. The two of you will also have to use the jutsu I use; the _Henge no Jutsu_ that won't need you to consciously keep it up."

Sighing at Sakura's mutinous expression, Tsunade said, "Look, if you two find enough evidence that the whole thing is a spoof, you can contact me using communication scrolls and I will get you out of there."

Sakura's gaze snapped up. "Really, shishou?"

"Yes," Tsunade wearily answered. "Heaven knows you two are beyond pointless missions anyways, and this really may end up being a waste of time. But I suppose you can never be too careful. Anyways, you two better get as much sleep as you can. Meet here in the morning at eight."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the two chorused, as they trooped out. Once outside, Sakura muttered to herself, "I _still_ can't believe we have to do this."

"Think of it as a vacation," Sai said, walking beside her. "If the claims are really as absurd as Tsunade-sama believes, it'll be easy and we'll get to live in luxury for a while."

"I suppose so," Sakura sighed. She was not looking forward to being forced to wear kimonos day and night. Those damn things were unbearably constricting.

* * *

Sakura cursed fluently under her breath as she desperately tried to tie the obi of her kimono. No matter what she tried, the knot just wouldn't stay. And at the moment, Ino wasn't there to save her. Neither was Hinata. Or Shizune. Or even Kurenai. Tenten would be a lost cause – that girl knew less about kimonos than Sakura, even.

"Why the hell won't it stay together?" growled Sakura as she felt another carefully tied knot fall apart. That had been her third try, and she swore she would just tie it like a hitae-ae if her next try resulted in failure as well.

"When in doubt, use a senbon," Sai lightly said, announcing his entrance into the room.

Sighing, Sakura knew she didn't have much option. She took a long and particularly thin senbon needle from a table nearby and stuck it deep into the knot. To her relief, the knot stayed. Now, she only had to hope that it wouldn't stick itself into her skin, and that no one who spot it and blow her cover.

"You are _so_ lucky you don't have to wear something as stupid as this," Sakura muttered, while Sai sat down to wait for her to finish dressing. It was true – the male form of the kimono required much less hassle, and looked just as refined.

While Sakura continued to mutter obscenities, Sai gave Sakura a good look. He was quite unused to her looking so, dare he think, beautiful?

She was wearing a traditional, deep blue silk kimono. There were embroidered purple and sky blue butterflies decorating the dark material. A soft pink obi tied into a sophisticated butterfly knot (held together by the senbon) held her ensemble together. The white and light blue collars peeping out from the outer kimono, as well as her slightly flushed face were a testament to the many bulky layers she was wearing. By all rights, she should have appeared awkward and heavy-looking. And yet, he had never seen her looking so feminine, not even on the rare nights Ino coaxed Sakura out for drinking and dancing.

Sakura made the last adjustments to her heavy sleeves with an annoyed grunt and turned to Sai.

"There. Do I look presentable?" she asked, arms crossed over her chest.

Instinctively, Sai stood up, took Sakura's arms, and uncrossed them. He placed them in a more lady-like pose, resting softly on her abdomen.

"You look less ugly than usual," he said, before wordlessly walking out the door.

Sakura, with a rather violent blush on her cheeks, placed a hand over her thumping heart and murmured, "What was that all about?"

Meanwhile, Sai was outside looking at his hands, wondering why he had just done that. Placing a pale hand on his rapidly jumping heart, he mumbled, "It seems to do that a lot whenever I'm around her…"

Thoughts of each other dissolved as Tsunade stormed down the hallway. Hearing her teacher arrive, Sakura exited the room and stood beside Sai, determined not to look at him.

Not noticing the rather charged atmosphere between the two, Tsunade said, "You're both armed and ready, I presume?"

Sakura mentally checked off all the weapons hidden strategically in her kimono and nodded. Sai too, was completely armed and ready.

"Okay, time for the _henge no jutsu_. This is what the Fire daimyo and his wife look like." She handed the two of them glossy, colour photos.

Sai took his, and looked down at the man staring back at him. He appeared to be in his late-twenties, early-thirties at most, and like Sai himself, had dark hair. His eyes were dark also – the only major difference was that the man in the photo was more tanned than he was. His jaw line was also rather strong, making him look arrogant.

Sai made the necessary hand seals and felt the transformation take place. He looked at the Hokage, who nodded in approval.

Sakura was also examining her photo. The daimyo's wife had long, ebony hair tied loosely at the ends, and large, innocent-looking blue eyes. She looked to be only in her mid-twenties. She was also even more slender than Sakura was, and obviously didn't have the toned muscles Sakura sported.

Sakura picked up a lock of her pink hair and sighed – she would miss her defining trait. Several quick hand seals later, Sakura looked exactly like the woman in the photo.

Sai turned to Sakura, and if it weren't for the fact that he _was_ Sai, his reaction would have probably been something like, "Woah!"

But since Sai _was_ Sai, he merely pursed his lips and said, "Ugly."

Expecting her student to retaliate and hit Sai, Tsunade smirked. However, when Sakura landed absolutely no blows on the male, she frowned. Sai, too, seemed to be surprised that he wasn't getting pummeled.

Sneering at their surprise, Sakura said, "The person he insulted isn't me, it's the daimyo's wife."

Tsunade let out a laugh (that sounded more like a cackle to Sai) and replied, "Well, I suppose you're right."

Looking more serious now, Tsunade went on, "Anyways, you may know already, but the daimyo's name is Takahashi Hideki, and his wife's name is Kanako. When speaking, you both need to use formal language. Sakura, you must always refer to Sai using the correct honorific. Understood?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Good." Clapping her hands together, Tsunade gestured into the room at the end of the hall. "Shall we?"

The three shinobi quietly entered the room, Tsunade and Sai leading with Sakura trailing slightly behind Sai, as was expected of her. Sighing internally, Sakura was glad she was never born into a particularly noble clan – she just could not deal with the whole "submissive female" façade.

Inside, sitting serenely and sipping tea, were the _real_ Takahashi Hideki and Kanako. They both looked up at the trio's entry. Tsunade nodded at the couple, while Sai and Sakura dropped into respectful bows. Hideki merely sniffed at them while Kanako gave a weak, but warm smile.

"These two are the ANBU-level shinobi that will be impersonating yourself and Kanako-san, Takahashi-sama," Tsunade announced. At the Hokage's nod, Sai and Sakura transformed back to their real selves to give the daimyo an idea of who he was paying, as well as to dispel the awkwardness of talking to someone who appeared to be physically identical to oneself.

Looking Sai and Sakura over, Hideki gave a brief nod, while Kanako tipped her head forward politely and said, "Pleasure to meet you."

Sakura tried her best to smile genuinely, but Sai figured it wasn't worth the effort and dropped one of his brightly fake smiles at the two.

"ANBU-level, you say," Hideki said, looking rather skeptical that two people as young looking as Sai and Sakura could be ANBU-level. His doubts seemed to increase as he took sight of Sakura's pink hair and Sai's midriff-baring shirt.

Tsunade gave a curt nod, rather annoyed that the daimyo would question her, the Hokage's, choices.

"Hokage-sama, I presume that these, ah, _youngsters_ are clear as to where their loyalties lie?" Hideki continued, oblivious to the twitching vein decorating the Godaime's forehead.

Before Tsunade could retort, Sakura replied for her, in honeyed tones, "I assure you, Takahashi-sama, that as my teammate and I were both born and raised in Konoha, we have a _very_ clear idea as to where our loyalties lie."

Nodding, the daimyo answered, "Is that so? Well, I mean no offense, but I really don't want a repeat of what happened with Uchiha Sasuke."

Seeing Sakura and Tsunade's stricken looks, he said, "Oh yes, we've all heard about that. What a pity, really, he was such a talented young man – I saw him at the chuunin exams some years ago."

"Uchiha Sasuke returned among our ranks over a year ago," Sakura stiffly replied. Sai didn't even have to look at Sakura to know that her fists were clenched and her back as straight as a ruler.

"Has he really?" Hideki asked, looking surprised. "Oh, I suppose that's good news, is it not? I am sorry, I just thought, as a part of Uchiha Sasuke's previous team, you may have picked up on some of his less admirable traits."

_The Uchiha doesn't _have_ any admirable traits, _Sai thought, while Sakura looked shocked that the daimyo knew who she actually was.

"You are Haruno Sakura, are you not? The apprentice of Tsunade-sama, famous for your immense strength, medical skills, and…temper," Hideki chuckled a bit at the last part.

Sakura gave him a plastic smile to affirm his words. Now she _really_ didn't want to waste any more words on this man. Noting Sakura's hidden irritation, Kanako gave the female a sympathetic smile.

"Well now," Tsunade briskly said, "it is time for you two to get going. Sai, Sakura, I will see you two at the gates. Make sure the _henge_ is up before you leave the building. Takahashi's servants will be there to escort you."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"One last thing."

Sai turned to the Hokage while Sakura wiped off her plastic smile.

"No one within Takahashi-sama's household knows that you two are in disguise, and it is my wish that you keep it that way. Expect this mission to last for at least several weeks – during this time, you can release the jutsu when you are both alone. Sakura, you may also choose to cast a genjutsu on the household during the times that you and Sai might want to train."

Once the two were outside and the door was safely shut, Sakura let out a string of profanities while Sai merely gave a small, exasperated smile.

"Ugly, you know you _cannot_ let your emotions take over like that," he reminded her.

"Come on, I deserve at least _some_ cussing after spending ten minutes with that pathetic bastard," Sakura snapped, still utterly irritated.

"Stop complaining," was Sai's only reply as the two began walking down the stairs.

"And you!" Sakura began, rounding on Sai. "When we're undercover, you better not act like him when it's just the two of us. Or else, I _swear_ I will give you a beating that you _will_ remember!"

"Trust me Ugly, I really _don't _want to be like him," Sai answered. Feeling slightly more reassured, Sakura sighed and sped up before Sai called out, "You're supposed to be behind me, aren't you?"

"Bastard," she huffed, but she complied and slowed her pace considerably, until she was once again behind him.

Turning around to face her, Sai smiled and said, "I love you too, Kanako-chan." He had transformed during the three seconds it took for him to reply to her.

Sakura resisted the urge to flash a rude hand gesture at him, and instead transformed into the soft-spoken woman she was supposed to be impersonating.

Once they stepped outside the building, they were directed to a lavishly decorated carriage. Sai waited until Sakura was seated before climbing in himself, and took the opportunity to look over "his" servants. There seemed to be two rather large processions – one in front of the carriage, and one behind. There were also two teams of four-man cells protecting them – one leading and one taking up the rear. All in all, it was quite an effective set-up to deter enemy attacks – if it weren't for the fact he and Sakura would be higher above the servants and shinobi (since they were on an elevated carriage), making them an easy target. Of course, that wasn't taking into consideration the fact that both Sakura and himself were fully trained and armed shinobi.

Satisfied with his observations, he turned his attentions to the female beside him. Glossy red lips were turned down and perfectly plucked eyebrows were knotted together. Sighing internally, Sai knew he'd take the pink-haired, green-eyed, and unpredictable Sakura rather than the black-haired, blue-eyed, moody beauty he was currently beside.

"Have a safe journey, Takahashi-sama, Kanako-san," Tsunade briefly grasped the hands of the (fake) daimyo and his (fake) wife.

"Many thanks for your hospitality, Hokage-sama," Sai replied, with an air of importance. Sakura nodded demurely, and gave one last look at her teacher. Tsunade gave her a discreet, yet encouraging smile, and Sakura felt something inside of her lift.

At Sai's nod, the servants began walking and the carriage moved forward. That "something" inside Sakura's heart dropped again as she realized that there was still so many friends she hadn't said "hi" to. She had just come back from a two-month training mission, and here she was, rolling right out of Konoha again. The thought was depressing, to say the least.

Sai noticed the mood of his companion was turning steadily worse. Her fists were clenched so tight that he wouldn't be surprised if her perfectly manicured nails would be drawing blood soon. Turning to his "wife", he asked, "You don't look well, Kanako. Are you feeling alright?"

"_Ugly, you look terrible."_

"I'm fine, Hideki-sama," Sakura softly answered.

"_Back off."_

"Are you nervous about traveling?"

"_You wish we weren't leaving so soon, right?"_

"A little."

"_Yes."_

"Don't worry. We are perfectly safe and well-protected."

"_We are capable shinobi. As soon as we take out the suspected attackers, or gather enough evidence to disprove his claims, we can go home."_

"I know. Thank you, Hideki-sama."

"_Thank you, Sai."_

As Sai turned back to the road ahead of them, Sakura looked up at the man sitting beside her. Although his face was different, his words, his heart – they were still the same. And that thought alone comforted her.

"_No matter what has changed in these few hours, at least he's still a constant source of…"_

And Sakura left that thought unfinished.

* * *

**a/n: **The _Henge no Jutsu _mentioned in this chapter is basically the simple transforming justu that all shinobi know. The only difference is that this one doesn't disappear or dispel even when the user is unconscious, etc. Just like Tsunade. We all know she's like...50, but she looks more like a 30-year old woman.

And yes, more of the rather strange fluff that is SaiSaku. I just love them together, don't you? And what does Sakura think Sai is? A constant source of...annoyance? Humor? Affection? Who knows. I don't either, actually XD

Another big thank you to my beta, **Silver Matter**, for checking this chapter as well as the last one :)

Enjoy!


	8. An Unexpected Advantage

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 8: An Unexpected Advantage**

* * *

"We have arrived, Hideki-sama, Kanako-sama," a servant, obviously higher-ranking than the other servants, announced, bowing low. At his nod, two of his subordinates hurried to open the door to the carriage. Sai nodded and stood up, Sakura doing the same thing beside him. He lightly exited the carriage, and turning around, gave a hand to Sakura. Said female was surprised he would do such a thing as help her down, but took the hand anyway – moving around with the layered kimono was proving to be quite a task.

"Come, Kanako," Sai said, Sakura's hand still firmly locked with his, "we should get you inside."

"Yes, Hideki-sama," Sakura quietly answered, the picture of a perfect noblewoman.

The retainer bowed once again and began leading the couple through a small section of woods before they reached a huge wall, which surrounded the daimyo's property. The two guardsmen bowed at their procession and opened the gates. Sakura had to fight to keep from dropping her jaw at the sight of the daimyo's house.

Sakura had never, in her life, seen a building as magnificent as the Takahashi residence. Apart from the main structure, which had to be at least three floors high, there were sprawling green lawns and intricately designed Western-style gardens within her view. She also glimpsed a traditional, Japanese-style garden, complete with water and blooming lotuses. The actual building was also quite traditional, reminding her of the Uchiha estate she had used to see so much of. However, not even the extensive Uchiha property could compare with this.

The huge, embossed sign bearing the kanji for "Takahashi" above the main entrance reminded Sakura of the mission at hand, and she couldn't help but grasp Sai's hand a little tighter as they set foot inside.

The interior was just as fine as Sakura had imagined – the décor was tasteful and elegant, adding to the sheer magnificence of the home. The main receiving area was circular, with a direct entrance to the grounds. There were numerous exits from the room, undoubtedly leading to different hallways, which in turn would probably lead to different rooms and even more hallways. Sakura almost groaned at the thought of such a huge memorization project in front of her.

Within seconds, a pretty, young woman dressed just as formally as Sai and Sakura swept in the room gracefully, and offered the couple a bow. The retainer at Sai's side, as well as the servants in the room, dropped into bows at her entrance.

Her red lips curved into a beautiful smile as she looked at the couple.

"Welcome back, onii-sama, onee-sama," she murmured.

Thunderstruck, Sai and Sakura resisted the urge to look at each other. Onii-sama? Onee-sama? The daimyo had never mentioned a sister living with them. And whose sister was she anyway? Were they close, or did they have a cold and strained relationship? How exactly were they supposed to act towards this sister? There were countless questions floating around in their heads when this sister began talking again.

"Please, onii-sama, onee-sama, come with me. I have something to show you," she said, turning towards the entrance to the estate grounds.

Clearing his throat, Sai replied, "Very well." Turning to the retainer and the servants, he said, "You may go."

Completely unperturbed, the retainer murmured, "Yes, Hideki-sama," and retreated, along with the servants.

Turning back to the young woman, they followed her into the grounds, until they came upon that Japanese garden Sakura had caught a glimpse of. She gestured for the two to take a seat, so they did so, waiting for the woman to start speaking again.

"Before they left, onee-sama told me about you," she informed them shortly.

The two were, once again, stunned into silence.

Giving a tinkle of laughter at their reactions, she continued. "I know you two are Konoha shinobi employed by my elder brother to deal with an assassination attempt that he is expecting. Onee-sama came to me, late last night, after onii-sama had fallen asleep, to tell me. She bid me to tell you of the going-ons of this household, to help you adjust."

"Is that so…" Sai slowly said. Sakura knew that Sai was deciding whether or not this woman was trustworthy. Sakura herself couldn't detect any lie coming from the woman, and she obviously was who she said she was – there was no chakra coming from her indicating that she was in a _henge_. In fact, there was next to no chakra coming from the woman – she was obviously not a kunoichi.

Sai seemed to have drawn the same conclusion as Sakura, as he finally said, "It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Sai, and this is my partner for this mission, Haruno Sakura."

"Pleasure to meet you," Sakura smiled, giving the woman a low bow. The woman bowed back and replied, "The pleasure is all mine, Sai-san, Haruno-san."

"Please, may I call you Junko-san?" Sakura asked, hoping she wouldn't have to use the longer 'Takahashi-san'.

"Please call me Junko-chan," she replied, smiling. "That is what onee-sama calls me at home."

"And how should I address you?" Sai asked.

"Onii-sama calls me 'imouto-san', or simply 'Junko'," she replied, turning to the male sitting across her. The Fire daimyo was obviously not an affectionate elder brother – Sai would have to remember that. Kanako, on the other hand, seemed to fit in the 'loving-sister-in-law' mold.

"While the two of you take up residence here, please don't hesitate to come to me if you have questions about how this household operates," Junko said. "I am always available in my own wing."

"There are _wings_ to this house?" Sakura weakly asked. Her memorization project just got that much harder.

Nodding, Junko replied, "Yes, I'm afraid so. There is the main wing, which you have seen part of when you first came in. The third door on the left of that wing is a hallway leading to my own wing, which consists of a receiving area, two bathrooms, four rooms, and two storage rooms. The last door on the right of the main wing is the hallway to onii-sama and onee-sama's shared wing. In that wing, there are two receiving areas, a private study for onii-sama, a dressing room for onee-sama, one bedroom, five other rooms, two bathrooms, a hot spring, and two storage rooms."

Sakura could only sit wide-eyed and open-mouthed as Junko dictated the various areas of the two wings. And she had only gotten started.

"Apart from that, there is one whole, unused wing beside onii-sama's wing that traditionally belongs to the mistress of the house. There are also the servants' wing, the main kitchens, and various other areas for specific purposes."

"Junko-san, would you happen to know if there are any blueprints of the property, as well as the house?" Sai asked, already beginning to think about strategy.

Nodding, the woman stood up and answered, "I had been anticipating that question, so last night, I had asked the head retainer if he had any information regarding that. It turns out that there were several leftover house plans, back when this was first built. Please excuse me while I go get them."

Sai nodded and Junko left, stepping gracefully along the path back to the house.

Letting out a huge sigh, Sakura said, "How can they use _so _much space?"

"People find a way," Sai lightly answered.

"So, how should be do this mission? Actively look for information or just lie low and wait around?" Sakura asked.

"What do _you_ think?" Sai asked, turning to Sakura. "Treat this as training. What would you do?"

Thinking for a moment, Sakura replied, "Since we have time _and_ resources, I would take a day or two to familiarize myself with the environment while keeping myself on guard. Then, I would map out high-risk locations within the house, possible ambush locations, etcetera, and make a plan in case of an attack. After that, I would try to find out who exactly is targeting the daimyo, or even if the claim is valid."

"Sounds reasonable," Sai said, nodding slightly. "Since we are impersonating a couple with a large amount of power, money, _and_ time, we are in an advantageous situation. Like what you said, we should get to know this property first, figure out a plan to protect the house in case of an attack, and then dig up more information about the validity of the claims."

"What about Junko-san, and the servants?" Sakura demanded.

"What about them?" Sai asked.

"Aren't we going to include them in the protection plan?" Sakura asked, rather impatiently.

"Were we paid to?"

"But, we can't just _let_ them get attacked, if it really comes down to that!" Sakura argued.

"Is that another socially accepted moral that I'm supposed to try to learn?" Sai asked.

"_Yes," _Sakura replied. "And besides, it is a shinobi's duty to protect the civilians of their country– that is a rule that comes before any mission."

"Good to see you still remember the basics," Sai smiled. Sakura growled as she figured out she'd been tricked – of _course_ Sai wouldn't leave out the innocent people in the household. While he was socially inept, he was a devoted and loyal shinobi of Konoha, never failing to place duty first.

The silence was soon broken by Junko's soft footsteps. She settled herself back upon her knees and, with both hands, handed several folded sheets of paper to Sai. He accepted them wordlessly and knowing Sai wouldn't thank her like he should, she smiled and said, "Thank you, Junko-san."

"It was no problem," the noblewoman softly replied.

Sai looked up at Junko and asked, "Do you mind if I scribble on these?"

Shaking her head, Junko replied, "These are copies anyways. You may keep them."

Sai began examining the blueprints, and Sakura took it upon herself to fill the silence up with chatter.

"So, Junko-san…can you tell us how we should act in the house? Like, how does Hideki-sama treat Kanako-sama, vice versa, how we treat the servants, any quirks that they have, stuff like that?"

Laughing softly into her sleeve, Junko nodded and replied, "Yes, I suppose you should get to know onii-sama and onee-sama's personalities more. Onee-sama is a very kind and gentle." Sai internally snorted – Sakura impersonating a _gentle _woman? What a joke. "She treats everyone with respect and almost always has a smile on her face, however small it may be."

_Okay, gotta remember to always smile,_ Sakura thought, nodding for Junko to go on.

"Onii-sama is rather different," Junko went on. "While it would not be incorrect to call him rather blunt at times, I prefer to call him honest, if sometimes overly so. He is intelligent and has a dry sense of humor, I must say. He doesn't smile that much, and does not really pay attention to the servants – he orders them around, and they do his bidding. That is about it."

Junko glanced at Sai, and back at Sakura, who said, "Oh, don't worry about him. He might not look like he's paying attention, but he actually is."

"Alright then," Junko smiled, and after shifting slightly, continued. "As you might have figured out, onee-sama treats me very well – as if she were my blood-related elder sister. Onii-sama, however, does not interact with me very often. He prefers not to spend his time on unnecessary matters, and it is apparent that I am one of those matters."

Sakura winced at the woman's blatant honesty – it seemed like Hideki was not the only honest one around.

"But Junko-san, why would Hideki-sama treat you like that?"

"I am seen as a burden," Junko shrugged. "There is a fifteen year age difference between my elder brother and I, and as a result, we never really got to know each other that well. When my parents passed on, it fell to him to provide for me, as I have no husband. I believe he has just about finished a marriage contract between myself and the heir of the Sennami clan."

"I see," Sakura slowly replied.

"There is no need to get distressed over my relationship with my brother," Junko said lightly. "He provides for me, and I stay out of his way. It is a comfortable lifestyle, and I don't mind."

Sakura smiled and said, "I suppose so."

"Anyways, where were we?" Junko murmured thoughtfully. "Yes, I was telling you about onii-sama's personality traits. Sometimes, he is quite a puzzle to figure out. He treats everyone callously, but he treats onee-sama like a princess. Although he still doesn't smile much in her presence, I can see the difference in his mannerisms and tone of voice."

Sakura was surprised – when they had met with the daimyo, that had been one thing Sakura hadn't picked up on.

"Haruno-san, do you find something strange about the household?" Junko asked, a strange look in her dark brown eyes.

"Um…not really," Sakura admitted.

"There are no children," Junko said simply. At Sakura's confused look, Junko elaborated. "In noble clans such as our own, the need for an heir is quite insistent. Onee-sama married into the Takahashi family when she was sixteen and onii-sama was twenty-four."

With a pang, Sakura realized what Junko was getting at. Nodding at Sakura's expression, Junko said, "Yes, onee-sama is unable to bear children."

"But that is not my point. What I am trying to get at, is that onii-sama has never brought home any concubines. In noble families, if the wife is unable to conceive, it is accepted for the husband to bring home a woman to bear his heirs. Onii-sama and onee-sama have been married for about ten years, and onii-sama has yet to bring any woman home. To me, that is an indication that onii-sama actually truly loves onee-sama. And that is the main reason why I respect him as much as I do."

Sakura was shocked – even Sai paused in his examination of the blueprints. Who could have thought that the rude and condescending daimyo they had met that morning was such a devoted, loyal husband?

"It is rare to find love in arranged marriages, yet onii-sama and onee-sama seemed to have been blessed in this aspect," Junko sighed. The young woman was no doubt thinking about her own upcoming marriage.

"Perhaps you too, will be blessed, Junko-san," Sakura replied, a small smile on her face.

"I can only pray that the kami are kind to me," Junko answered. "But whatever happens, I will be a loyal and faithful wife."

"Such is the duty of a woman, isn't it?" Sakura sighed, her own eyes drifting up towards the sky.

"It does not have to sound so bleak, Haruno-san," Junko laughed. Sakura turned her eyes back upon Junko with a questioning look. "As a kunoichi, Haruno-san, you are undoubtedly a strong woman. But noblewomen such as myself are not schooled in the ways of the world. We simply cannot make it on our own. To have a husband to provide for you is already an incomparable blessing from kami."

"A strong woman…" Sakura laughed softly. _Am I really a strong woman?_

Junko looked carefully at the younger woman sitting in front of her. The kunoichi's eyes were trained upon the sky, a wistful and slightly sad expression visible on her features.

_Such are the eyes of a woman who has seen sorrow,_ Junko sighed internally.

She got up quietly and said, "I will leave the two of you alone now. Please do not hesitate to come to me if you are in need of anything."

With a bow, Junko was gone, leaving behind a brooding kunoichi and a busy shinobi.

"Hey Ugly, are you ready to start planning, or are you still wallowing in your negative emotions?" Sai asked, looking up at Sakura.

Said kunoichi turned and glared at the male, and snapped, "I'm not wallowing in negative emotions!"

Turning to scan over the blueprint herself, Sakura added, "And yes, I am ready."

"Good. The prints were straightforward enough – I think just a glance will give you a clear idea of where our high-risk areas are."

Sakura pointed at several areas at various points in the building, and Sai nodded.

"Exactly. If you'll notice, one of those areas is the master bedroom, where you and I will be staying. It is probably for the best, as no one else from the household is likely to get in the crossfire should we actually get any action in the coming weeks."

"The rest of these areas should be easy to cover," Sakura said. "These are all areas that are in disuse anyways, according to these notes, so some simple barriers and traps should suffice. The only reason the master bedroom is such a high-risk area is because the entire back wall is a paper screen door that leads to an enclosed courtyard with a fountain, instead of the thick walls that the rest of the house if made of."

Sakura couldn't help but think that it was a rather romantic notion, to have a courtyard with a _fountain_, for crying out loud, just a step away from the bedroom. But really, the house-builders just _had_ to use a _paper_ screen door, didn't they?

"Right. Ugly, you cover these," he pointed to three different areas, "with traps and the like – anything you think will be necessary to deter assailants or alert us of intruders. I will cover these," he pointed to another two areas, "as well as the bedroom. Got it?"

"Why are you the one giving orders?" Sakura asked, miffed at his authoritative tone.

"ANBU rule number one: Don't question orders."

At Sakura's stubborn expression, Sai reached into his robes and pulled out a scroll.

"Who accepted the mission scroll?"

Sakura mentally smacked herself. Damn that boy and his forethought and his excellent strategizing skills and his pretty lips.

_I _so_ did not just think that._

* * *

**a/n: **Is this chapter really late? Darn, I'm sorry. But my beta and I are both very busy people... :P Anyways, this chapter is kind of a transition chapter, so please pardon me if you found it boring. But I do have to say this - major foreshadowing! And Sakura is beginning to be (un)consciously even more attracted to Sai, not only physically, but emotionally, the intimacy is starting to appear.

And yes, Takahashi Junko is the unexpected advantage. However, my beta thinks she's evil...hmmm...is she? Or is she not? That's for you to decide XD

Enjoy!


	9. Trying to Get Along

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 9: Trying to Get Along**

* * *

"Kanako-sama, your tea has become cold. Shall I send for a warmer pot?"

Sakura was sitting in the sunshine outside with a romance novel and a handmaid. The woman who had spoken was elderly, with eyes that betrayed her wisdom and experience. She was obviously a respected servant within the household.

"That would be very nice, thank you," Sakura smiled warmly, and went back to her romance novel. She had found it inside a room full of books inside Kanako's unused wings. Dusty and old as it was, its plot was proving to be quite intriguing.

Of course, the _real_ Sakura wasn't lounging around and reading sappy romances. _She _was merely a clone.

"Dammit!" Sakura quietly cursed, as she slit her finger on a thin wire. Sucking the bleeding fingertip gently, she used her other hand to finish tying the securing knot and squinted through the darkness at her handiwork. Whoever had not thought to place lights in the dark, windowless corridor should be whipped. True, no one really _used _this corridor, but _still!_ It had taken Sakura fifteen minutes to correctly put up the wires and other small electronic devices necessary for the monitoring cameras to work. It should have only taken five.

Looking over her work with a semi-satisfied sigh, Sakura made several handseals, appearing in a cloud of grey smoke in the bathroom that her clone had just entered. In several minutes, the real Sakura emerged, looking just like Kanako. With a small smirk uncharacteristic of Kanako yet often seen on Sakura's features, the kunoichi, with an entourage of maids behind her, decided that she was going to enjoy this vacation-mission as much as she could. And what could be better than a complete make-over? Well…technically, it would be _Kanako_ who would be reaping the benefits but really, who cared?

* * *

With his _own_ entourage of servants trailing behind him, Sai swept into his large study and waved off all of them, except for the retainer, who stayed behind.

Sitting himself comfortably in the large, cushioned chair behind the huge, varnished desk, Sai asked thoughtfully, "What is there to do today?"

"My lord, if I may speak?" the retainer bowed deeply. With a casual wave of his arm, Sai gestured for the man to continue.

"My lord will remember that the most pressing matters have been taken care of already before leaving for Konoha." Sai nodded, keeping up the façade of understanding what the man was talking about.

"As of now, the only things of importance are Junko-sama's wedding preparations, and several trading offers that have just arrived."

"I see. But before there is a need to see to Junko's wedding arrangements, there is still the final signing of the documents, is there not?" Sai asked. He had cast a brief look at the papers on the daimyo's desk, and to his luck, there had been some things left out.

"Yes, my lord. I apologize for my forgetfulness," the retainer replied.

"Hn. Never mind. You may leave. I will call you in when I see fit." Sai, with another careless wave of his arm, dismissed the man and was left in silence.

Picking up the documents carefully, Sai smirked – that daimyo really _was_ quite intelligent. He was obviously not so careless as to leave important pieces of information lying around – they had been left out intentionally. But at the same time, it might have meant the daimyo wanted Sai to do his work _for_ him while he was hiding his cowardly ass in Konoha. Dammit, he would see to it that Tsunade-sama paid him in full for this.

Nevertheless, the daimyo's family situation piqued Sai's curiosity and there was nothing better to do, so he began looking at the papers in his hands. There were many, many drafts of the marriage contract, complete with scrawled notes in red ink and crossed-out sentences.

Good. Messy writing was easier to imitate than neat writing. Sai would just have to find a couple of unmarked marriage contracts and draw all over them to make it look like he was actually working.

As he sat idly, wondering where he could find useful information to disprove the daimyo's claims, his mind wandered to his teammate. He was curious as to how Sakura was spending her time. Those traps he had ordered her to set should have been done ages ago – he had felt her clone disappearing a while ago, which meant she was done. He hoped she was doing something constructive.

* * *

_Ah, this feels so good!_ Sakura crowed internally as a maid with smooth, white hands slathered thick, creamy _stuff_ on her face. It was supposed to "smooth wrinkles and enhance inner glow". What a load of bullshit. A quick whiff and Sakura knew that the _stuff_ was made from simple, inexpensive ingredients whose only effects would be a pleasant cooling sensation. But it sure as hell felt good.

"Kanako-sama, I will come in again in half an hour. Please enjoy and rest," the maid said, before bowing herself out.

"I wish _my_ hands were that nice," Sakura sighed, as soon as she was sure no one was in the immediate vicinity. She turned her gaze down to scrutinize her own calloused hands, but frowned when a pair of soft and silky looking hands greeted her.

"Oh right, my hands _are_ that nice," Sakura smiled, admiring Kanako's hands. "At least, for now," she added in afterthought. Did all noblewomen have such nice features? She hadn't seen a _single_ female in the household who could be considered not good-looking. It was simply ridiculous. Not to say that Konoha was full of ugly kunoichi and unattractive civilian women – no, quite the opposite really, if one looked at Sakura and her friends. But still, there were pretty ones and not so pretty ones. It was just accepted that things worked out that way.

And it wasn't only the females either. Since she had arrived at the house, she had yet to see an ugly man. No matter the age of the servants, they all carried themselves gracefully and with purpose, and _all_ of them could be considered quite nice-looking.

_Ino-pig would have a field day if she came around here._

* * *

Sai sighed as he came upon what must have been the fortieth edition of the oh-so-important marriage contract. Really, did the daimyo have _that_ much time on his hands? There were only minor changes between the versions, the largest change being a sentence here or a term there, and the smallest change being a comma instead of a semi-colon. Sai could probably recite the entire contract, leaving out nothing, _backwards_ even, by now.

His prodding fingers led him to a stack of what appeared to be letters – rather official-looking ones. Peering inside the first one, Sai rolled his eyes.

Marriage offers.

Really, was this Takahashi Junko _that_ desirable?

There was one from some oil company family and one from this apparently prestigious clan named _Miyachi_ and a couple of shinobi families from the Wind Country and one from company family called _Sennami_.

Wasn't that the name of the heir she was betrothed to?

Looking back to the letter in his hand, he began reading.

_Esteemed daimyo-sama,_

_The purpose of this letter is simple, so I shall get to the point – my son, Sennami Takeshi, would like to ask for your younger sister, Junko-sama's hand in marriage. _

_Our family, the Sennami clan, is known mainly for our trading endeavors throughout the nations. We specialize in fine textiles as well as foreign goods – thus, our yearly income is quite magnificent. _

_Should you agree to our offer, I can assure you that your younger sister will spend the rest of her days in the lap of luxury and comfort. _

_My son is sincere in his wish to marry Junko-sama; I am certain he will treat her well. He is turning twenty-one this year – a mere two years older than Junko-sama. _

_Enclosed are photos of my son Takeshi, our dwelling, which is just a day's walk south of the village of Konoha, and also a copy of a preliminary marriage contract, should you agree to this offer._

_Please consider this letter, and thank you for your attention._

_Sincerely,_

_Sennami Takahiro_

_President of the Sennami Company of Trade_

Sai scanned over the photos, and like he expected, the Sennami's property _was_ quite extensive and furnished lavishly. Sennami Takeshi was a tall fellow who looked rather young for his age. Sai supposed women would probably find him attractive, something that Junko would probably appreciate.

He put all the documents and stretched; glancing at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, an hour and a half had passed by without him knowing it. Clearing his throat, he was about to call the retainer back in but stopped, realizing that he didn't know the man's name.

Cursing softly, he wondered why he had been so careless. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't think his mission was worth going on, maybe it was the feeling of Sakura's hand pressed into his when they first entered the house, maybe…

Sai stopped his mental rant at that thought. There was absolutely _no_ way that she could be _that_ much of a distraction to him. There was absolutely no way that he would _let_ her be that much of a distraction to him.

Satisfied with _that_ thought, Sai set about rummaging through the drawers, hoping he would come across something that would tell him the name of his retainer.

Smiling slightly when he reached a heavy folder that read "Household Information", he flipped through its contents until he found the employment statistics of every single servant in the house and grounds. The first profile was that of the retainer; his name was Fukuyama Izashi.

With a loud voice, he called out, "Izashi."

Said male came in a second later and asked, "Yes, my lord?"

"I am feeling rather tired today, after all the traveling that we did. I am going to retire to my chambers for now; do not let anyone apart from Kanako in, but _do_ call me for dinner," Sai instructed, standing up and moving towards the door.

"Yes, my lord. I shall relay the message to Kanako-sama as well. Would you like her to attend to you now?"

Attend to him? Whatever did _that_ mean?

Oh.

So the daimyo had a healthy appetite for his wife.

But really, when he had said he was _tired_, did that imply he probably wouldn't have the _energy_ to do whatever his retainer had implied? Kami, these people were dense.

"No, it is fine. I shall send for her when I require her presence," Sai answered shortly. "You may go."

"Yes, my lord."

Five minutes of scouting later, Sai _finally_ found the master bedroom. As he had expected, it was large, spacious, and elegantly decorated.

At the entrance, there was a clear view to the end of the room, where several screen doors separated the room from the courtyard outside. Paper screens, decorated with blossoms and the like were strategically placed to shield outside eyes from the large futon at the right side of the room, touching the wall. There was a low wooden table at the foot of the futon, with a jug of what appeared to be water and two cups. Several ink paintings of nature adorned the walls and potted plants, foreign to the area, had been placed near the entrance. An exit at the left of the room led to a magnificent marble-tiled bathroom – a stark contrast to the simple, modest bedroom furnishings.

Satisfied with his scouting, Sai walked back into the bedroom. One minute, one clone, and one _henge_ later, someone who appeared to be the daimyo in bedclothes stood beside one dark-haired, smiling shinobi.

Sai was _not_ one to waste precious time on matters such as resting. Especially when he wasn't tired. But it _had_ been a nice, believable excuse for him to get away from the servants and do some _real_ research.

The ANBU Root member had been doing some real thinking all through the day. If _he_ were an assassin, what would his motive be for targeting the Takahashi couple?

The first answer that had come to mind was obvious – money. The daimyo was rich. People tend to envy rich people. Simple and to the point. However, with someone whose family was as interesting (and unusual) as the daimyo's, things got a little more muddled.

If he were an assassin, _how_ would he go about trying to get money from the daimyo? After all, some people tended to rich by hoarding their reserves. Which in other words, means that they don't like to share very much.

There were many methods of acquiring money from an unwilling donor – breaking-and-entering, kidnap-and-ransom, planting a double agent in the household, blackmail, conning, et cetera et cetera. Some of these methods generally proved to be more effective than others.

Based on what he had found inside the daimyo's study, the guy really didn't have many enemies – political or otherwise. The daimyo, while often blunt and lacking social etiquette, was an honest and fair man, and as such, his subjects didn't have much to complain about. The Fire Country was a prospering nation, and the people of the land were generally happy. He was smart in all his dealings, knowing when to surge forward and when to let go – Sai suspected Hideki's sharp thinking skills had greatly contributed to his large bank account.

Basically, if one wanted to attack the daimyo, it would not be a revenge of some sort – there was nothing to avenge in the first place. It would most likely be done out of greed or self-gratification. Of course, there was always the possibility of mental instability as a motive for murder, but Sai wouldn't count on that.

Suddenly, Sai was struck with a thought. Racing off to the vast library within the wing, he mulled this theory in his mind over and over.

* * *

Two face masks, one mineral soak and one massage later, Sakura sighed and languished in her rejuvenated beauty. It was such a shame that shinobi, even ANBU-ranked ones, simply didn't have as much money as _these_ people. It would have been really nice to come home everyday to such pampering. But even so, Sakura knew she wouldn't give up her profession, ever. She was living out her childhood dream – how many people could truly say that?

"Kanako-sama, it is time to prepare for dinner," the elderly servant, whose name was Mara, reminded.

"Yes," Sakura smiled, and got up, allowing herself to be led deep into the daimyo's wing.

She was not too surprised that when Sai, or rather, _Hideki_, swept in late, that no one said anything about it. She _was_ surprised that he allowed himself to be late, however, and made a note to ask him about it – it was probably something intriguing that he had found.

Dinner was a rather tense affair, as neither Sakura nor Sai had much experience with dining etiquette. Most of their dinners had been at the Ichiraku ramen stand, after all, and Naruto was _not_ known for his table manners – rather, his lack thereof. With Naruto as an influence, it was hard to eat civilly sometimes. Furthermore, neither of them knew whether or not they should eat all that was offered, or leave some leftovers. Either way, Sakura _did_ find it rather strange that Kanako's meal portions were larger even than the daimyo's – Hideki really seemed to want to pamper his wife. It was lucky that Sakura had a huge appetite, for Mara kept quietly urging the poor kunoichi to eat more.

When they had finished, Sai turned to Sakura.

"I trust your day has gone well, Kanako?"

_Have you done anything productive, Ugly?_

"It has, my lord."

_Somewhat._

After a pause, Sakura began again.

"What about you, my lord?"

_Have _you _done anything useful?_

"I have been busy with documents and the like. They are rather important so I had to get them done."

_There was some important stuff that I found._

"Is that so? I wish you good luck with them, then."

_Really? We have to talk about it later._

"Thank you, Kanako."

_We will._

* * *

"So, what did you find so interesting?" Sakura asked, carelessly removing all the pins from her hair and yelping slightly when one of them caught on a strand of pink hair.

Sai seemed to be thinking for a moment, and then answered, "I happened to be just looking up the background of the Sennami family, the family that Junko-san is going to marry into, when I found something strange."

"Which was?" Sakura prompted, turning to look at the black-haired male sitting cross-legged on the center of the huge futon in the bedroom.

"According to records, this family has a local history of less than ten years, which leads me to question how they got all the money they have. Additionally, the date that this family was first mentioned was also around the time another wealthy family disappeared completely from the records. The books say an extremely bad bout of pneumonia wiped the family out. These two families had a close relationship, apparently," Sai replied.

"You think there's more to this family than meets the eye," Sakura stated, turning back to the mirror.

Sai shrugged and replied, "Possibly. It was just something I found rather intriguing."

"I wonder if the daimyo knew…" Sakura mused.

Sai didn't answer, instead choosing to pull out his sketchbook and a pencil out from the bag lying by his side. Opening it up to a blank page, he got up and walked over to the screen door, sliding it open and sitting down on the stone steps that led to the courtyard. Picking a point of reference, he began sketching.

Sakura yawned and stretched before getting up and walking over to stand behind Sai.

"Hey, do you think it's alright that we dropped our henges?" she quietly asked.

"I've got two ink clones nearby to alert us if anyone might be coming in the room," Sai replied, "which I highly doubt they will, considering who we're impersonating."

Truthfully speaking though, Sai just got tired of turning to talk to Sakura but seeing another woman in her place – it was slightly unsettling. To his dismay, he found himself unconsciously missing her vivid pink hair and green eyes – Sakura just didn't seem to be S_akura _without those two traits.

"Well, it _is_ nice to be ourselves again," Sakura admitted. "I was getting tired of seeing perfection every time I looked in the mirror."

Turning and heading back into the room, she continued. "It's such a hit to the self-esteem, knowing you'll never look like that."

Sai paused in his drawing and turned to the kunoichi behind him. Clad in a pure white sleeping yukata, with her hair freshly washed and let down, Sai could hardly say that she wasn't pretty – although he'd never admit it. Emotionless as he may appear, he still _was_ a man, and was not immune to the charms the female species held. He mentally shook his head at her foolishness and turned back to the blooming flowers on his page.

Sakura picked up a candle from the row on a shelf above the futon and set it down beside Sai. Padding silently back to the shelf, she blew them all out, casting the room into darkness, lit slightly only by the flickering candle by Sai's side.

"I'm sleeping now," she informed him. "Good night, Sai."

"Hn," was his only reply as Sakura lay down and pulled the covers over her pink head.

"Oh, one last thing," Sakura called out. "You better stay on your own side, or I won't hesitate to punch you through the screen door."

"Go to sleep, Ugly," Sai answered. "I won't go near you."

Satisfied, Sakura closed her eyes and sighed, a small smile on her lips.

Half an hour later, the sound of deep breathing told Sai that Sakura was asleep, and he closed his sketchbook. Entering the bedroom again, he slid the screen door shut and blew out the candle. In the inky darkness he changed into another sleeping yukata he had found and slid under the covers beside Sakura.

Sakura had groggily registered the fact that someone was beside her and instinctively turned on her side to face him before falling back into a deep slumber. Perhaps it was the presence of the black-haired ink user sleeping peacefully beside her, but that night, Sakura's dreams were plagued by locks of black, inky hair, slender and artistic fingers, and inaudible whispers coming from the full lips of a certain male.

* * *

**a/n: **I AM SO SORRY FOR THE EXTREMELY LATE CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've actually had this finished for quite a while, but since both my beta and I were on vacation...yeah, you should get the point. As a consolation, this chapter is long(er than the others). And I think chapter 10 will come out MUCH sooner than this one did. But today was the first day of school - we all know what that means. Homework in the near future. So please don't be too mad if I don't update as frequently as I used to - I'll try my best to get an update on weekends. :)

Happy reading XD


	10. When You Read Between the Lines

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 10: When You Read Between the Lines**

* * *

Sakura woke slowly, feeling delightfully warm and comfortable. There was something oh-so-soft-and-warm-and-pleasant-smelling beside her, and she didn't want to move.

_Waitwaitwaitwaitwait._

Soft, warm, and pleasant-smelling?

Sakura gave an _eep_ and sat straight up, clutching the folds of her yukata together tightly. To her side, Sai slumbered on, unbothered by her little episode.

Sakura's cheeks grew flushed as she realized that, in her sleep, she had practically flung herself onto him, her body instinctively moving her closer to the warmth and scent that teased her senses. Willing herself to calm her racing heart and cool her raging blush, Sakura got up carefully and walked to the bathroom, drawing up a basinful of cold water to splash her face with.

Mere seconds later, a faint _pop_ told Sakura had one of Sai's ink clones had picked up on a presence near their room, and she hurriedly henged back into Kanako while she felt Sai, who had apparently woken up the moment the ink clone had appeared, do the same.

She practically dove under the covers and the two pretended to be asleep, just as the door slid open quietly and the elderly female servant came in. Walking over to Sakura's side, she gently shook her lady and murmured, "Kanako-sama, it is time to wake up."

Unsure of how Kanako tended to wake up, Sakura settled for sighing softly and fluttering her eyelids open. The performance seemed to have been satisfactory, as she was greeted with a smile and a "good morning, my lady".

In twenty minutes, Sakura was completely dressed, courtesy of Mara, and Sai had "gotten up" and received a "good morning, my lord," from the gray-haired servant.

Breakfast was less tense and more lighthearted than the previous evening's dinner – Sai and Sakura both had a better understanding of how they should appear in front of the servants. Sakura and Junko had began chatting animatedly, with Junko leading the conversation to make sure Sakura wouldn't say anything out of character. Sakura was beginning to take a real liking to the daimyo's younger sister – Junko was a lively young woman, full of her own ideas and thoughts. The kunoichi didn't understand how the daimyo could have possibly left behind his sister.

However, the morning meal was over much too quickly and Junko had been whisked away for lessons of some sort. Why a competent nineteen-year-old woman would need further lessons, Sakura didn't know. Sai and Sakura themselves were directed back to the study, where the two began working.

Sakura was surprised to find that Kanako actually had her own part to play in running the household – the woman was apparently in charge of managing the household accounts. This was something Junko had casually commented upon during breakfast, so Sakura was surprised when the leather-bound accounting book was placed in front of her.

Knowing there wasn't much she and Sai could do while Mara, who seemed to be always within a five-meter diameter of Sakura, was in the room, Sakura simply lost herself within the numbers and figures of the book. It was soothing work, requiring not much of her concentration, as math had always been one of Sakura's relatively stronger points – paying attention at the Academy had paid off quite nicely for her. She had been one of the only Konoha rookies who managed to finish the written part of the Chuunin exam without cheating.

Meanwhile, Sai was sitting near her, trying to look like he was working when in reality, he was thinking hard about the information he had gotten his hands on the day before.

A sharp knock on the heavy wooden door broke the mundane quiet and all three people in the room looked up. Sai cleared his throat and called out, "Come in."

Izashi approached the desk and bowed to Sai and then Sakura, who gave him a small smile in return while Sai just looked disinterested. Turning back to Sai, Izashi said, "My lord, a merchant couple have just arrived and are asking for your presence – they have brought what was written in that trading offer yesterday. Would you like to see them now?"

Sakura threw a quick glance in Sai's direction, wondering what he would do. Sai seemed to think for a moment and then stood up, saying, "Yes, I will see them now." Turning to Sakura, he said, "Kanako, I shall be back soon."

"Yes, my lord," Sakura replied, smiling up at him. Without another word, Sai and Izashi swept out of the room.

Sakura bent back down to her work, but all the while her mind was pondering something else. She didn't know if it was just her eyes, but it seemed that the daimyo's – Sai's – eyes had softened for just a moment when he had said he would be back soon.

Sai could hardly believe his eyes – there, in front of him, dropped into low bows, were none other than Yamanaka Ino and her boyfriend – the one whose name Sai could not quite remember. It was a testament to his self-control that he didn't start at their appearance.

When they rose from their positions, Sai saw a mischievous twinkle in Ino's eye – the blond girl was loving every minute of this charade, he was sure. The man – his name was Izumo, Sai just remembered – said, "Daimyo-sama, my wife and I have brought the items we wish to trade you."

"I see," Sai replied. "What exactly are these items you speak of?"

"Rick silks and embroidered fabrics from the country of Wind," Izumo answered. It was then that Sai noticed the civilian clothing the duo was wearing _were_ reminiscent of the clothing he had seen in the Hidden Sand – light, airy, with head coverings.

"Is that so? Well, I am certain Kanako has more expertise that I do in this area," Sai lightly replied. Turning to Izashi, he ordered, "Bring Kanako here – I am sure she would like to see the fabric for herself."

After the servant departed, Sai turned back to Ino and Izumo. The latter had nodded to two men at the back, who left and promptly returned with two huge lacquered boxes, stacking them to the trio's side.

Sakura walked in with Mara trailing behind her five minutes later. Sai saw the barely perceptible eye-widening that Sakura exhibited at Ino's appearance, but found himself proud that she did not display any other outward signs of recognition.

Ino and Izumo both bowed again, and Sakura herself dropped into a small bow, giving them both smiles.

"Come, Kanako," Sai said, lifting a hand to guide Sakura closer to him. "I want you to see these for yourself."

The box opened to reveal bolts and bolts of thick, heavy silks, lightweight chiffons, and many other different fabrics. Sai couldn't help but wonder where the Godaime got all the money to buy the stuff inside the box. But then again, she _was_ the Godaime, so it was certain that she was able to pull some strings along the way.

"These are of a very high quality, and should last long," Sakura murmured, leaning down to finger the contents of the box.

"Yes, my lady," Ino nodded. "Clothes made from this heavier silk is best suited for winter weather, or everyday wear. Clothes made from the more delicate silks and chiffon are excellent for large events, galas, meetings, and the like."

"Hm…Junko's wedding is coming up, is it not? Perhaps you should ready your wardrobe now, Kanako," Sai said, turning his gaze from the box to Sakura.

"Yes, that _would_ be good – it will be one less thing to worry about," Sakura agreed, finally standing up.

There was a scroll hidden within the bolts of cloth.

Sakura was now looking for an opportunity to get the four of them alone to speak freely.

Izumo and Ino both seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as the taller shinobi said, "Perhaps my wife should get your measurements now, my lady? We can plan and design your attire now, and we will get it completed and sent to you before the wedding."

Ino nodded enthusiastically, playing the part of an eager merchant wife quite nicely. Sakura pretended to ponder for a moment, and then said, "That would be very convenient."

"Please, is there a private area in which we can get your measurements?" Ino asked, while Izumo packed the boxes back up and lifted them up.

"Of course," Sakura answered. Turning to Mara, she said, "Please also tell Junko of this, and get her measurements for clothes as well. After she is married, she will need a different wardrobe of clothing."

Mara bowed and scurried off to find the other lady of the house while other servants led the way to an empty room in Kanako's wing.

Finally left alone in the deserted wing, Sakura hastily dropped her henge and launched herself at Ino, who seemed to be equally enthusiastic. Sai, who had also dropped his henge by this time, looked at Izumo, who seemed to have an slightly exasperated, albeit affectionate look on his face. Sai empathized with the man – the two females were both best friends and worst enemies, so it was often difficult for the duo's friends to please both of them. Yet when they were friendly with each other, it often brought smiles upon people's faces – the two giggly females were a refreshing change of scene, especially in a shinobi village where laughter was a luxury that not many could afford.

"Oh my gosh, Sakura!" Ino squealed, pulling back to take a good luck at her friend. "Your kimono is _gorgeous_!"

Sakura laughed – a genuine one. "Yes, and it's not mine."

Ino huffed and replied, "Whatever, at least you get to wear it."

Sai cleared his throat and looked pointedly at Sakura, who understood his gaze as a warning to focus on their task at hand.

"Right," Ino said. "From now on, we're going to be your link to Konoha. He and I will be visiting from time to time under the guise of selling you fabrics. Now that you agreed to the plan to make your clothes for the wedding, we have even more excuses to visit."

Izumo nodded and continued, "The scroll inside the box is from Hokage-sama. They are likely instructions or something of that sort."

"I see. Thank you," Sakura smiled, rummaging through the box to get her hands on the scroll.

"Also, Ino is going to be doing reconnaissance missions for the purpose of helping you find more information about the attack the daimyo keeps going on about," Izumo added.

Sakura looked up, surprised. It had been quite a while since Ino had accepted any missions, being too tied up with Academy work to have time to.

Ino scowled and explained, "Hokage-sama said that since I haven't taken any missions for the good part of a year, I have to start again. Something about me being on active duty yet not really being on active duty. But anyways, it was either this or guarding the daimyo and his wife. Which basically means playing the part of servant, which I am _not_ going to do."

Izumo rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while Sakura laughed yet again – it was just so _Ino_ to say something like that.

"And that's totally messed up! But what I'm really mad about is that I can't see my class while I'm on the mission," Ino growled. "I miss those kids already! And I keep worrying because the supply doesn't know the kids as well as I do and won't be able to accommodate for each of their needs, and…"

It was then that Sai tuned out completely – it was obvious Ino was on another one of her rants. Turning to the scroll, Sai broke the seal and scanned its contents – if the Hokage wanted a reply, it was best to send it along with Ino and Izumo. Closing up the scroll, Sai summoned a clone, who appeared along with a blank scroll, ink, and a brush. Tsunade had wanted Sai to report what they had found out already, and also instructed them to tell Ino what they knew already.

"…yeah, and so I was asking him when _we_ would have kids…"

Sai looked up just in time to see the "it-better-not-be-in-the-near future" flashing through Izumo's eyes, and couldn't help but smile slightly.

All too soon, or so it seemed to Sakura, Ino and Izumo had to leave, bringing with them Sai's response scroll to the Hokage, as well as the heavy lacquered boxes. With them they also took Junko's measurements, but Sakura knew it was highly unlikely that Junko would ever get the clothes. Of course, the household didn't have to know about that. Yet.

* * *

All was dark in the Takahashi household – everyone was back in their rooms sleeping. The only things Sakura could hear were the occasional owl hoots and Sai's quiet breathing beside her.

It should have been a relaxing atmosphere to fall asleep in, but somehow, Sakura just couldn't close her eyes. There was something in her gut that was making her jumpy. It was like her intuition was running overtime, telling her that something was up. She tossed and turned, trying to get rid of the feeling.

A strong hand grasped her firmly on the waist to stop her from moving.

"Ugly, stop rolling around."

"Sorry," Sakura apologized. "I couldn't sleep."

"What's wrong?" Sai asked. It was uncharacteristic of her to be this awake at night – Sakura was quite the deep sleeper, second only to Naruto, something Sai had learned on their missions together.

"It's just…" Sakura struggled to find the right words. "Call it my female intuition, but something's up. I just know something's going to go wrong."

Sai didn't question her further, but merely said, "Don't worry about it. Go to sleep."

Sakura closed her eyes but still found herself worrying, even after Sai's words. She rolled over, turning her body towards him. She found comfort in the fact that she could just about feel his breath on her cheek.

Neither of them drew attention to the fact that his hand was still resting on her waist.

* * *

Sakura frowned down at the figures staring up at her. Or rather, the line crossing through a hefty sum on the page. Looking up through her dark bangs, she saw Mara sitting serenely beside the table, helping her organize her completed work. Coughing softly, Sakura said, "Mara-san, would you please brew up a pot of tea for us?"

Said woman got up and bowed, bustling out to do her mistress' bidding.

Satisfied that the servant was out of hearing range, Sakura turned to the man beside her and asked, "Sai, do you know why this was crossed out so violently?"

Her perfectly manicured nail pointed to a spot on the page that had documented three different expenses – all pricey and paid in full. The last one had several thick black lines crossed through it, as if the order to spend that sum was revoked.

Turning from his own work to hers, Sai skimmed through the information.

"Well, it is dated about a week and a half before our mission started," Sai began. Sakura's frown deepened as she replied, "But why would they buy something so expensive just before they knew they were going to leave? I mean, that's not very…smart, is it?"

"No, I suppose not," Sai mused. "But I think we can safely assume that this line was drawn in a moment of strong emotion – it is rough and ink is spattered around the edges."

"A moment of strong emotion?" Sakura asked, not quite understanding what he meant.

"Like, when you're angry, don't you take it out on Naruto or me?" Sai asked. "And you're less coordinated and are more prone to make mistakes."

"You mean, like whoever did this likely did it when they weren't quite in control of their emotions, resulting in the messy line," Sakura said, lightly fingering the black ink on the page.

"That's right. Took you a while, Ugly," Sai lightly replied. Sakura replied with a swift smack to his head.

"And based on the thickness of the line," Sai continued, "it is one of daimyo's ink brushes, as Kanako-san uses ink pens with metal nibs."

"So that means something must have ticked the daimyo off enough to make a screwed-up line in this book." Sakura raised an eyebrow. "That sounds rather childish, doesn't it?"

"Perhaps…" Sai slowly said. His mind was swiftly running through scenarios and explanations – after all, this might be a clue of some sort.

Sakura's eyes suddenly lit up and her mouth formed the shape of an 'o'.

"What is it?" Sai asked.

"These numbers," Sakura whispered, pointing to the figures, "I've seen them before. In the mission office, in the Hokage Tower."

Sai frowned, not catching on to what she was saying.

"Being the Hokage's apprentice, I helped her accept commissions and assign missions when she was unable to do so herself," Sakura continued. "These are the figures for an A-rank escort mission!"

"An escort mission?" Sai asked. "But why would the daimyo commission an _A-rank_ for the escort to and from Konoha? They had been provided with chuunins, not jounins, which must have meant that it was at most, a B-rank escort. "

"Look down here – this is the price of a chuunin escort, which would be B-ranked," Sakura pointed to another spot further down the sheet. "And this one has three figures too, with a line slashed through the last one."

"An A-rank escort _and_ a B-rank escort? How does that all tie in?" Sai thought out loud.

As the pieces fell in slowly, Sai began talking. "Could it be that…the B-ranked one really _is_ the escort that they had, but the A-rank was something different. Like…the daimyo and his wife were the ones to approach Hokage-sama regarding our placement here. They _had_ to have paid for it first, so this might be it…but why would it be put under an _escort_ mission?"

"Because we never label impersonation and espionage missions _as_ impersonation and espionage!" Sakura replied, comprehension dawning in her eyes.

At Sai's raised eyebrows, she rolled her eyes – he obviously had not experience in the more administrative side of being a chuunin. She wasn't even sure he _had_ been a chuunin for very long.

"Espionage missions are _always_ labeled as either escort missions or D-ranked missions," Sakura explained. "It's dangerous for our shinobi if it showed on their records that they had done espionage missions before. And it's also bad for inter-country relations – it could be concrete proof that our country had done snooping on theirs. Of course, we all _know_ that the countries keep tabs on each other, but when it's on paper it's all the more official, all the more _real_."

"So even though the mission rank is the same, the mission title would be changed?" Sai asked, completely new to this concept – true to Sakura's guess, Sai had only spent the good part of month being a chuunin, and that was only because the jounin exams didn't take place until later.

"Exactly!" Sakura said. "This proves that the A-rank is what we're doing now, and the B-rank was the escort that brought us here."

"Then, it would be reasonable to assume that the line crossing the third set of figures out means that Junko-san got erased from the equation," Sai said. Sakura paused, looking at the page. It made sense to her, then.

"I suppose so," Sakura slowly answered. "But why? If he had originally wanted her to be kept safe too…what made her expendable? And in such a short period of time?"

"As to that, I have no idea," Sai admitted. "But I do find it strange that the date of the actual mission written along with other information here was supposed to be two weeks _after_ we arrived. As in, this mission shouldn't have happened yet, at least not when we actually started it."

"Oh yeah…" Sakura breathed. "The dates here, on the escort mission as well as the A-rank don't match up with the date of our departure…"

"Perhaps that was why Hokage-sama looked so frazzled when she summoned us? The daimyo probably suddenly told her to change the date," Sai surmised.

"That _would_ make sense," Sakura agreed. "Shishou hates it when people change things last minute."

"But why?" Sai continued. "We've figured out everything, but we still don't have a motive. Why would there be so many last minute changes?"

"Do you think Junko-san might have the answers?" Sakura asked, turning back to Sai.

"Probably, but they may be too personal for her to just tell us, don't you think? She seemed like a pretty open person, so this must be something that is of a more personal nature," Sai guessed.

"Well…" Sakura hesitated. "There is a way that we can find out more about Junko without her knowing."

Putting down the leather-bound volume gingerly in her lap, Sakura made several hand seals in quick succession.

"You know what to do," Sakura quietly told her clone. The shadow clone darted out the open window and disappeared.

"You following her," Sai stated. Sakura nodded and replied, "That way we can gain more knowledge about her – stuff that she still hasn't revealed to us. Habits, what she does when she's alone – things like that."

Sai seemed to agree, and both people settled back into their seats as Mara came in, bearing a pot of steaming and fragrant tea.

_Well, we've figured out one thing together, but this still brings us no closer to the truth, _Sakura internally mused. _If anything, this is just like some soap opera – the dark secrets kept within a large family. I _cannot_ believe I got reduced to being intrigued by what might be family politics…_

* * *

**a/n: **zomg aren't you PROUD of me? I've managed to get this chapter out ON TIME!!!!!! EXACTLY ONE WEEK!!!!! So kudos to my beautiful beta **Silver Matter** for sending it back so promptly :D And I have to admit, this was a filler chapter, but it sets the stage for important events to come. So I hope you all paid attention! Virtual cookies to everyone who guesses correctly what happens next (and yes, there IS sufficient info for you to guess what's going on!).

Yay for fluff! It's slowly building! yay! But I do have to warn you guys - this fic is NOT going to be something that's blatantly romantic. There'll be a series of one-shots revolving around this story that WILL have more romance in in. But this one is going to be more plot-oriented. Because I need a change from all the sappy romances that I love writing. :)

Enjoy, and please drop me a note telling me how you liked (or disliked) it!


	11. Secrets

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 11: Secrets and the Consequences of Knowing Them**

* * *

It would be tricky business – that was for sure. Getting the truth out of Junko without resorting to shinobi tricks was going to be one hell of a challenge. The woman, while kind and gracious, kept mostly to herself – a seemingly private person.

But it was lucky that Sakura spent quite a bit of time in the female's company just idly chatting, or quietly reading together. She had discovered a hobby of Junko's – writing in a diary.

At first, Sakura had thought that perhaps Junko was finishing up some lessons, or writing a story. Some prodding revealed that it was, in fact, a diary – one that apparently contained a _lot_ of private thoughts that she could never find the gall to say in front of her brother.

Additionally, Sakura and Sai had both noticed that, while she was supposed to be a noblewoman, Junko could really be quite absentminded. It wasn't out of ordinary to find her things lying around after she was done with them – Sakura had had to return a book or a piece of sewing to Junko on more than one occasion.

As such, there had been plenty of opportunity to snoop around in this diary of hers – if only there had been a need before. Sakura had never stooped as low as reading someone's diary, but then again, it was rule number one in the shinobi rulebook – duty before honour. As underhanded as it was, it had to be done if it could aid in the mission. All Sakura had to do now was to wait until Junko slipped up and left her diary around again.

The chance came a mere day after Sai and Sakura's conversation. When evening had set in after dinner, the two women went out into the garden once again just to relax – Sakura with her romance novel, and Junko with her journal and pen.

As twilight came around, the scant conversation dwindled even more and Junko excused herself to ready for bed. Once again, she left her things behind. Sakura slipped the diary and pen into the deep sleeves of her kimono and stood up, intent on returning to the privacy of the bedroom to read whatever had been written.

Sakura set herself down comfortably onto the wide futon, already dressed and washed, and took a good look at the book in her hands. It appeared to be quite old – Junko probably had it since she was much younger. There were dog-eared pages here and there, the cover was bent, and it looked like it had probably been thrown or kicked around a couple of times. That didn't surprise Sakura at all – when one lived a life that Junko had led, it wouldn't have been strange to feel the need to let off steam now and then.

The first pages were, true to Sakura's guess, written a long time ago. The ink had begun to fade and the writing style was careful and quite flowery, as if it was written by a young girl who wanted to emulate the more sophisticated writing styles of an older female – most likely her sister-in-law.

The content itself was quite light-hearted at first – complaints about her daily lessons, the restrictive quality of her clothing, and such. But as the years in the dateline began to increase, the words on the page began to illustrate the life of a terribly repressed and unhappy young woman. It talked about how her life was already planned out for her, about the pressures of living up to her brother's standards, about the unfair role of females in society. On more than one page, the ink had run and smudged from tears that had undoubtedly fallen while the young woman was writing.

One particular entry caught her attention as she flipped through the pages.

February 18

_I must calm my fluttering heartbeat before I continue writing. It is almost too much for me to bear. _

_Today, I met a young man by the name of Miyamoto Tatsuya. And to put it simply, he is magnificent. He is tall and broad, and tanned just enough to show that he works hard. And his hair is the darkest shade of black I have __ever__ seen – darker than nee-sama's, even! And his eyes – oh, his eyes! They are a clear blue, exactly like the colour of the autumn sky. _

_Nii-sama had hired his father's company to build the newer rooms in nee-sama's wings, and he was overseeing the work. But even though he really doesn't __have__ to do anything, he still helps his workers and isn't the high-and-mighty type. He is just __so__ hardworking and he smiles while he's slaving away – it just makes me want to smile. But at the same time it breaks my heart because a man like him can do so much more than just be a hired hand – well, he __is__ the heir of this building company, but it is a rather small business, I must say. _

_He is going to be coming almost daily from now on, at least until the rooms are finished. Oh, I hope that I will have the chance to talk to him – I saw him looking at me more than once and he seems to be interested…poor boy, nii-sama will never, __ever__ approve. But I shall find a chance to talk to him – he seems so genuinely kind!_

Sakura's lips curled into a smile as she read the entry – the idea of Junko squealing over someone was just too funny.

March 2 

_Oooh, today was the first time I had a REAL conversation with __him__! I was so nervous, I had to concentrate extra hard so I would not trip over my own words – that would have been __so__ embarrassing! I was lucky that nii-sama was out at some meeting with some important people so he was not around to tell me off for talking to someone who was "below my station". Honestly. He actually said that the first time I tried to strike up a conversation with Tatsuya-kun! I was mortified. _

_But Tatsuya-kun was very kind about it and said he understood. I was so relieved. He is so easy to talk to! We talked for a whole hour before Mara-san chided me (I had neglected my lessons). But I have to admit, it was the first time I have talked to a man of my own free will – all the other males I have talked to are mostly potential suitors, and I am supposed to be polite to them. But just thinking about their greed and lustful desires just makes the bile rise into my throat – I sincerely hope nii-sama will be kind enough to marry someone who is, at least, not old and lecherous. _

_Enough about the future that is ahead of me – I must continue with my lessons._

This entry piqued Sakura's interest greatly. It showed the first signs of rebellion in Junko – the fact that she took advantage of her brother's absence to talk to a male she fancied was something Sakura couldn't imagine Junko doing.

And as Sakura continued flipping, certain phrases began to pop out at her.

…His eyes seemed to reach for me before he left… 

…_His hand was halfway to mine but then nii-sama came in…_

…_we talked in the garden and he picked a flower for me…_

…_he smiled and I forgot what I wanted to say…_

…_he blushed when I wiped that bit of plaster off his face…_

…_he told me how happy I made him…_

…_I gave him two origami cranes I had made…_

…_he brushed a kiss on my cheek behind the well and I almost fainted…_

…_he had to go; it was the last day of work…_

…_he came two nights ago…_

…_I kissed him…_

…_and when morning came, I did not regret it._

'And when morning came, I did not regret it.'

The truth hit Sakura hard – Junko was in love.

* * *

"Ugly, why are you staring at that book like it's diseased or something?" Sai asked lightly, stepping into the room.

Sakura looked at Sai, and then back at the book, still unable to form any semblance of a thought.

Sai sighed and walked over to her, taking the book out of her hands and scanning the page. His eyes widened minutely as he realized what he was reading.

"This is Junko-san's diary, isn't it?"

Sakura nodded mutely.

"You managed to get it?"

She nodded once again.

"I see," Sai murmured, settling himself down beside her to read. It didn't take him long to read all she had read, and in several minutes he returned the diary to Sakura.

"And what exactly is so surprising that you appear to be mute?" Sai asked, an eyebrow arched in question.

Finally finding her voice again, Sakura said, "She's in love."

"So?" he asked, "it doesn't prove anything."

"She's in love, and she's got a fiancé who's NOT the man she's in love with," Sakura continued.

Sai shrugged and replied, "Things like that happen all the time inside political circles, don't they?"

"Yes, but still…" Sakura struggled to make a point. "And that last entry I was looking at was written not very long ago."

Sai glanced at the book lying in her hands again, and frowned. "The date…it's the day we were summoned to Hokage-sama's office – the night we got this mission…"

"You don't think…" Sakura mused, mulling a thought over and over in her mind.

"Think what?"

"Well…it all seems to fit perfectly now," Sakura said. "Junko was engaging in an affair behind her brother's back, wasn't she?"

"You could say that."

"And if he found out…" Sakura left that thought unfinished.

Sai understood what she was saying – Hideki had no doubt somehow found about her little escapades with this Tatsuya character, and had flown into a rage.

"But why would he be so upset about all this?" Sai asked. "I mean, it's not like Junko-san didn't agree to marry into that clan."

"Yes, but things are different outside of shinobi villages," Sakura explained. "In Konoha, we shinobi live by a motto: 'Live for today'. We take chances normal people wouldn't, we _do_ things normal people wouldn't. By engaging in this affair, Junko has lost something that is valued above all else, at least, in a traditional point of view."

Sai raised an eyebrow.

"Her _virtue_," Sakura impatiently stated. "Don't you get it? A woman's chastity is a _very_ important thing to people. Even the civilians in Konoha will frown upon a woman who has a child out of wedlock, although we shinobi wouldn't even bat an eyelash if the same thing happened to someone we know."

"Okay, so she lost her virginity," Sai said. "And so Junko is now pretty much classified as 'damaged goods', right? But as long as her fiancé's family doesn't find out, what's the big deal?"

"The thing is, chances are that her fiancé _will _find out," Sakura ground out, a barely discernable flush on her cheeks.

"How do you know?" Sai challenged, utterly oblivious to the workings of the human body.

"I'm a _medic _for crying out loud, of _course_ I'd know!" Sakura replied tartly, her tone signifying that the issue was resolved. She really didn't feel like explaining the finer details of female anatomy, as well as male chauvinism, to Sai.

"Okay, okay," Sai held up his hands in surrender. "But even so, she's the only heir he's got. Why would he risk her safety, all for the small chance that she might be found out? Besides, it seems like she stopped seeing that guy anyway."

Sakura turned away and sighed. "I don't know either. It just doesn't make sense."

It was true that handing Junko over as a bride without her virtue intact was a bad thing for Hideki; yet, there was always the chance that they would _not_ find out about her deceit. While Sakura had obstinately insisted that they _would_ find out, the truth was that the fiancé probably wouldn't be observant to notice the difference. As long as Junko could act the part of a blushing virgin, all could be saved. But why in the world would Hideki leave Junko behind when he was so certain they would get attacked? There had to be a missing piece that Sai and Sakura hadn't found yet.

Sakura groaned in frustration, her lips set in a firm pout. Making several quick hand seals, her clone appeared and made off with the diary and pen – Sakura had sent it to sneak into Junko's room that night and put the items back where they belonged.

"Whatever, I'll keep thinking tomorrow," Sakura said, slipping under the covers and pulling the blankets to her chin. Sai's lips twitched at her display of frustration and he made off with his sketchpad, intent on getting some more sketches in.

His time at the daimyo's residence had proved fruitful – at least, in an artistic point of view. He had completed countless sketches and was starting to paint whenever he had time to. It was relaxing, and in Konoha it was rare that he had a moment just for painting. The foliage was not as picturesque in Konoha either, and the artist in Sai didn't let him waste any opportunity to draw beauty.

His thoughts wandered to his slumbering teammate as he pondered the meaning of beauty. When he had first joined Team 7, it really _was_ true that he found Sakura ugly – her hair colour had been way too 'in-your-face' and it contrasted much too greatly, in his opinion, with her eyes. She had been loud and boisterous, and whenever she screeched at Naruto his head had begun to hurt. Most of all, she had worn her heart and her sleeve and it confused him to no end because he _had _no emotions at the time. It was only later that he began to realize she only screeched because she cared and she only wore her emotions on her sleeves because that way she wouldn't get swallowed up by their sheer intensity.

And as those facts registered in his mind, she began to get just a little bit less ugly. And when she accepted him for who he was and began to care about _him_ as well, she crossed the line between 'ugly' and 'not ugly'. And soon her pink hair and vivid green eyes didn't bother him anymore, and were in fact, a source of comfort in his life. He could always count on Sakura to react the same way when he did certain things, and the consistency comforted him.

When the full moon was directly overhead, Sai decided that he had done enough thinking (about Sakura) for one night and slipped into bed. Sakura turned to face him, mumbling incoherently, and Sai was once again bombarded with the spread of warmth throughout his body.

What exactly was he feeling?

* * *

The supposed lead on Junko had led Sai and Sakura on weeks on fruitless searching. They had found the reason why Junko had been left aside so easily, yet they were no closer to finding the reason why Hideki would do that to his heir apparent. Furthermore, as interesting as all the family politics was, they were no closer to proving, or disproving, the validity of Hideki's claims.

"I'm bored out of my mind!" Sakura moaned, dropping her head onto the desk. Sai merely lifted an eyebrow and continued writing. It was true that he was bored as well, but he didn't feel it was necessary to call attention to the fact.

"Hey, I've got an idea!" Sakura sat up suddenly. Not paying attention to the fact that Sai was barely listening to her, she went on.

"We can take advantage of the fact that Mara-san is out right now," she smiled. That said, she made several quick hand seals and a clone appeared.

A hand went to the senbon holding her obi together and soon, the obi was in a pile around her feet.

At this, Sai set his pen down and hurriedly asked, "Ugly, what the hell are you doing?"

Turning around, Sakura replied, "Switching clothes."

"Well, give me some warning at least," Sai retorted. "I don't want to see more of you than I have to."

Sakura huffed and replied, "Fine, fine. Turn around if you don't want to see my naked behind."

Feeling heat rise to his cheeks at her audacity, Sai mumbled under his breath and turned around.

Sakura and her clone were done switching quickly, the countless days of obi-tying and kimono-wearing having honed her dressing skills considerably. The real Sakura, pink hair and green eyes intact, rounded on Sai.

"Your turn!" she crowed. Eyes widening, he asked, "What?"

Without saying anything further, Sakura sighed and made another clone, making it henge into Sai.

"Change," she ordered. "Now."

"Why?" he asked, a hand gripping his clothes shut. When Sakura had her heart set on something, she tended to take matters into her own hands. Especially if the people involved weren't willing. And Sai did _not_ feel like having his clothes pried off of him, no matter what.

"So we can train," Sakura impatiently replied, looking as if she was itching to add a _duh_ after it. "What did _you_ think?"

Training.

It had been something that had been neglected since arriving at the Takahashi household. Almost six weeks without training was NOT a good thing. Especially if all one did was sit around and eat all day. Sakura swore she had gained ten pounds since she had arrived.

"Turn around," Sai mumbled with a resigned sigh. Sakura beamed and did as she was told – it wasn't very often that she got her way around here.

The sound of clothes rustling made Sakura truly realize that she was in a room alone with a mostly naked Sai (at the moment, anyway). The thought made her blush – she would never deny that she found him very attractive (although his personality, for the most part, was a completely different story). And with him always parading around with his (oh-so-sexy) midriff exposed, it was a fact that always stayed in her mind.

"Where to?" Sai asked, turning around when he was done.

"Courtyard," was her prompt reply and the two sped off as their clones transformed into Kanako and Hideki and bid them goodbye.

"I've got it all planned out," she informed him. "The courtyard is big enough for us to throw each other around a little bit, and no one really goes there apart from us, so chances are people won't see anything. I'll also put up a genjutsu and a station a clone nearby so we'll be warned in case someone really decides to hang around."

Sai shrugged and replied, "Sounds okay." He was nonchalant, but the anticipation was building in his system – it had been too long since he had the chance to stretch out and train. He was itching for a good fight. When they close enough to see the courtyard, Sakura weaved a genjutsu together and made a clone.

They landed lightly upon the slightly crunchy leaves in the courtyard and locked eyes. The tension built up from weeks of living together and next-to no outside communication was finally going to be let out. Sakura smiled, a rather feral one, and pulled her black leather gloves up slightly.

And in the blink of an eye, neither of them were there and suddenly they just _were_, with her fist in his hand and her hand covering the hand that had strayed to his sword.

"You need to be quicker," Sai whispered, his breath dancing lightly upon her cheeks, and then he was gone and Sakura, reacting purely on instinct, had blocked his incoming fist and neatly evaded his kick. Taking advantage of the split second in which his balance would be weak, she kicked him off his feet and had him in a headlock, only to realize she was strangling a log.

Throwing the log in front of her, intercepting three kunai along the way, she kicked up a hurricane of leaves and debris as she jumped, landing on the thick branch of a tree. An exploding tag ignited and she was gone, whipping through the branches with practiced ease.

He couldn't see her anymore and could rely only on his chakra-sensing abilities. Sai could feel her presence, but he was having a hard time putting his finger on her exact location. There weren't any leaves on the ground when Sai put his hand together and 'kai' was on his lips but it was second too late. There was a kunai at his throat and it was her breath that skittered across the back on his neck when she said, "Quick enough?"

Sai let himself smirk and replied, "Almost." He disappeared in a whirl of green leaves, a signature move of all Leaf ninja. Sakura smirked too – she would not have expected any less from him. It wasn't really her anyway – both of them knew that. It wasn't him either – she knew that too.

"When are we _really_ going to fight?" she asked, knowing her would hear her. He appeared before her, strolling up casually as if it was just a normal meeting between teammates (who were not sparring).

He smiled brightly and replied, "That was a nice warm-up, wasn't it?"

Sakura sighed impatiently and answered, "I guess so. Now can we _really_ get started?"

"Taijutsu?"

"Sounds good!"

And then they flew at each other and to any outsider who might have been watching, it would have been impossible to discern who was who, with all the flying limbs going every which way.

Sakura was in her element – apart from genjutsu, she had always been the most comfortable with taijutsu. She let her body lead her mind as her fists flew, as her back arched, as her feet nimbly danced the dance of hand-to-hand fighting.

To her, taijutsu had surpassed mere fighting – it had become an art. Every movement was fluid and gracefully, always supported with purpose, never straying from her goal.

To Sai, it really seemed as if she were dancing. Gone were the days in which Sakura punched through everything that stood in her way. Now, she entranced you so much with her practiced movements that you would barely notice when she flew off, leaving you behind. Every flick of her bubblegum hair, every jade look from half-hooded eyes; everything served to entrance her opponent enough for them to lose focus. It truly was an art – as an artist, Sai could truly appreciate that.

When Sakura sparred with Naruto, it was like a clash of noise, wild and untamed, full of life and energy. When she sparred with Kakashi, every move was carefully calculated and she never flaunted more than she had to – with _that_ man, less was more. After all, she had no time to compensate for the advantage he would have with the Sharingan. With Sasuke, both had always held back slightly, as if afraid to hurt each other more than they already had. More so on Sasuke's part, but even with Sakura, everything was careful and well-placed, as if she was afraid to mar the perfection that Sasuke was. Or that she _thought_ he was.

With Sai, Sakura was _free._ She _danced_. For him and only him, because he would be the only one who understood. It wasn't necessarily more emotional than when sparred with the others – it was simply a style that the others would not have understood why she cultivated.

So they sparred, fought, danced, until the afternoon was gone and a slight chill had set it. Sakura's skin was sprinkled with shallow cuts and colourful bruises, with a particularly nasty looking one decorating her thigh – she had gotten that one when she moved just a split second too slow. Sai had his own share of minor scrapes, but his bruises tended to be more defined – people who had had the chance to get a taste of Sakura's fists often swore they could clearly make out the shape of her sharp knuckles.

"That was fun," Sakura gasped, still trying to catch her breath. Beside her, Sai too, was breathing heavily, as he answered, "It was."

"We should do that more often!" Sakura smiled, wider than he had seen in a long time. He found himself wishing that this particular smile would appear more often – it just made him happy every time he saw it. He nodded his head in agreement and walked back into the darkening bedroom with her, sliding the screen door closed as he went.

The dry leaves danced with light breeze for a while, and settled back upon the dusty ground.

* * *

**a/n: **Je pense que je ne suis pas en retard!!!!!!!!!!!!...Je pense...J'espere (with an accent grave on the second 'e', don't tell me I don't know my french!)...

This was a long chapter...in comparison with my other ones :D The plot is unraveling nicely, just the way I want it. But I'm afraid that I couldn't put in something that I really needed to in this chapter...but oh well. There's always the next one. That just means I can't cliffhang like a madwoman XD 'Cuz this chapter was supposed to end in a ridiculously sad cliffhanger...so ha! I've saved you the angst of waiting another week or two!

Enjoy! And props to anyone who might be able to guess what's coming next ;)


	12. And Then My World Fell

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 12: And Then My World Fell**

* * *

Sakura was In A Good Mood. 

Mostly because Izumo and Ino were due to visit them again in a couple of days. It had all been arranged by Mara herself, something that Sakura found rather funny because the poor old woman was under the impression that the duo were going to finalize some waist measurements or the like. But it was true that the less Mara knew about the true nature of the visit, the better. After all, they had a potential killer on the loose after the head of the family.

Looking down on her schedule, Sakura skimmed its contents to see when she had free time.

_Accounts, invitations, tea with Junko, nap - _which, Sakura knew, really translated to "training" - , _doctor's appointment, oversee dinner preparations-_

Doctor's appointment?

Strange.

She made a mental note to ask later and went on skimming.

Her mindless musings were interrupted by Mara, who had quietly entered and closed the door behind her. Sakura looked up and smiled, welcoming the woman's comforting presence.

"Kanako-sama," she greeted, setting down a hot cup of tea, looking expectantly at Sakura. Said kunoichi, noticing the servant's look, put her book down and asked, "Is something the matter, Mara-san?"

Mara smiled and replied, "Nothing really, but I would just like to remind you that your wedding anniversary with Hideki-sama is in two days. With all of Junko-sama's wedding preparations keeping you occupied, I thought you might have forgotten."

Sakura had to work to keep the demure smile on her face.

"Ah, thank you for reminding me. I'm afraid that, like you said, with all of Junko's preparations, I had forgotten."

Mara nodded knowingly and went on. "Yes, my lady. So I took it upon myself to clear that day for Hideki-sama and yourself. Please take a day or two off for yourselves. Perhaps the two of you take a short vacation at the onsen nearby, just to relax."

Sakura sighed and thought about it. Since Mara herself had planned this, it would be a waste to let go of an opportunity to relax and also to collect for information. A chance like this was rare and might not come again. On the other hand, Ino and Izumo were due to visit in two days - chances were, she and Sai would have to reschedule their meeting if the two of them were to be away from the household.

But still, the promise of a hot spring vacation tempted Sakura sorely. And really, it had been a long time since she had given in to temptation. Making up her mind, Sakura replied, "That is a good idea. However, I am due for a meeting with the merchant couple who sold us the silks and wedding fabrics, so please, help me reschedule our meeting for after."

"Yes, Kanako-sama," Mara smiled, before turning to bow herself out.

"Oh, and Mara-san?" Sakura called out, hit by a sudden inspiration.

"Yes, my lady?"

"Please also reschedule my doctor's appointment for later as well. If I am to leave in a couple of days, I want to see to it that everything in the household is in order first."

"That will be done," Mara promised, as she left the room.

Sakura smiled, satisfied with the thought of an upcoming vacation. It was just so nice of Mara to plan so nicely for the two of them.

Two hours later at lunchtime, Sai was informed of their upcoming "vacation". He had felt it was a good idea as well, mostly because then he and Sakura would be able to dispel their clones and go scouting for information. Sakura had heartily agreed, although it was probably quite obvious that her ulterior motive had to do with the hot springs.

Within the afternoon, Ino had written back, saying she and Izumo would come in four days as she had an "appointment" with an official's wife. This translated to her going on a reconnaissance mission, probably to get more information for Sakura and Sai. The last time Sakura had gotten a message from Ino, it had seemed the blonde was really getting on to something within the Sennami household.

The day of their departure dawned brightly, promising two full days of rest and relaxation, at least on Sakura's part. In Sai's case, it spelled problem-free information scouting. Yet even with a cloudless sky as a good omen, Sakura couldn't shake off the feeling that something wasn't right – her intuition was calling out to her again. But she attributed it to nerves – after all, this was the first time since she had arrived that she would exit the main gates of the Takahashi household. If they were quick, they might even be able to dash into Konoha for a while before heading back.

Sai and Sakura chatted idly as the carriage they were on rolled along. The brisk fall weather had somehow faded into blazing heat, rendering the day quite stuffy. Still, nothing could dampen Sakura's enthusiasm for a good soak. When the sun was directly overhead, the carriage slowed to a halt in front of the onsen.

Sakura hopped out and stretched, ignoring Sai's pointed stare, past caring whether or not it was ladylike to stretch so openly – her bottom was hurting, and it was very clear to her that she could've run _so much_ faster.

Waiting until the carriage had rolled the driver safely out of sight and hearing range, Sakura dispelled her henge and laughed gleefully, eager for a cool lunch and a warm soak.

Sai, catching Sakura by the wrist, said, "Are you sure it's smart to go in as yourself?"

Sakura shrugged and replied, "It's not like they've seen Hideki and Kanako before. The two of them were intensely private, weren't they? I've lived in Fire Country all my life and yet I saw them for the first time when we accepted this mission."

Sai relented, letting go of her wrist. He too, was quite weary of parading as someone he was not, and was just as happy as she was to dispel his transformation, although he would never admit it.

* * *

As she soaked in blissful quiet, the silence broken only by birds and the rustling of the fallen leaves, Sakura thought. Thought about her life as it was – the people she had met, the sights she had seen, the skills she had honed, and the man – Sai - she had come to really know.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a shadow that flitted into her peripheral vision. Instinctively throwing a kunai in that direction, she discovered it was merely a clone of Sai as it disappeared with a puff of smoke and a _pop_. In the clone's place was a bound scroll. Wading across the shallow water, she reached over the jagged rocks and gingerly retrieved it, trying not to wet it too much.

It was sealed with Ino's signature. Excited, Sakura opened it and quickly scanned the contents.

_Hey guys!_

_So…I hear you're off to some "anniversary vacation" while I'm here _slaving_ away as some geisha! It's alright, I'll get back at you guys sometime. Maybe, when I'm back in Konoha, I'll tell Lee-san that you (Sakura!) have come to the realization that you're madly in love with him. And maybe I'll unleash your (Sai!) fanclub on you. Yes, he does have one. Hard to believe, eh?(And I was just kidding about Lee, Sakura!)_

_Whatever._

_Anyways, I just had to tell you that now, I'm pretty certain our dear daimyo wasn't bullshitting when he said he and Kanako-san were being targeted. That family I've been tailing – Sennami, Junko-san's fiancé, seem to be in the middle of some sort of deal. With the kind of people you really shouldn't trust. I'm not sure about it yet, but you guys should really keep on your toes. Of course, they don't know that you're undercover, and I'm positive they haven't sent anyone into the Takahashi household (yet), but still. _

_Keep safe; I'll see you guys soon!_

_Ino_

Happy about the new leads and nursing a slight worry for her blonde, flighty, and rather reckless best friend, Sakura sighed and sank lower into the water, relishing the last vestiges of peace that the hot water offered her.

Miles away, Sai nearly smacked his forehead in disbelief. He had forgotten that when a clone gets dispelled, the person who created the clone would reap the information the clone had discovered automatically. And it just so happened his clone had caught Sakura at a most inconvenient time – nude and surrounded by clouds of steam. That image of a bare-shouldered Sakura…he was certain the red tinting his cheeks would flare up again once he saw her when he got back.

Time passed quickly for the kunoichi dozing in the water. As twilight fell, the chill came and roused Sakura from her light slumber. Sighing happily, she got out of the water, donning a fluffy white bathrobe she had snuck into her baggage in favour of the stiff yukatas provided. For Sakura, it was comfort over style any day. Padding lightly into their room, she wasn't surprised to find the window open, the room silent save for the scratching of pen on paper and the occasional bird call.

He was sitting on the windowsill, legs dangling limply with a sketchbook in his hands. She skipped up to him and hoisted herself up beside him.

"Don't let your wet hair get my papers wet," he absently said, pen flying over the pristine white paper.

Sakura found herself once again entranced by the way the ink flowing from his pen created such beautiful sketches. Sighing wistfully, Sakura said, "I wish I could draw like that."

Sai "hn"-ed absentmindedly and Sakura didn't feel the need to press her point any further. They sat in amicable silence until Sai finished his picture with a scribbled date at the bottom and turned to Sakura.

"You say you want to draw like this?" he asked, turning to a fresh page.

Sakura nodded, not quite understanding where he was going.

"Here," Sai handed her the pen. "Try sketching that tree over there. All you have to do is try to keep the proportions correct and leave the details out until you've got a basic idea of where everything goes."

"I'm a terrible artist," Sakura warned, although she took the pen and pad from him.

He shrugged. "Everyone has to start from somewhere. My drawings have improved from when you first saw them, haven't they?"

"I suppose so," Sakura smiled, and she turned to the tree, mind focusing on the task at hand.

And yet, her confession of being a terrible artist rang true – her pen strokes were not smooth and practiced like Sai's, but hesitant and crooked.

"No no, not like that," Sai said, and instead of taking the pen from her like she had expected, he reached over and put his larger hand over hers, acting as a guide for her.

"You should sketch the trunk first, since it's the largest and simplest shape that makes up the tree," he instructed, lightly leading her hand to make the strokes.

With his right hand covering hers and his left hand on her other side, steadying the sketchpad, Sakura was hyperaware of the male sitting slightly behind her. His chest was lightly pressed against her back, enabling her to feel every fluttering beat of his heart. His head hovered near her shoulder, brow slightly creased in concentration as he focused on guiding her hand - she could feel every warm breath he exhaled against her damp shoulder.

It was driving her crazy, and she didn't know why. Or maybe, she actually did.

She had fallen, just as hard as she had the last time.

She could almost roll her eyes at the irony - of all the eligible men she had to have fallen for, it just HAD to be a dark-haired, pale-skinned one. One who had been, on more than one occasion, called a clone of Sasuke because of their similar appearances.

And the thing that ticked her off the most was that everyone, including Sai himself, would probably think she fell for him because he was an image of Sasuke. And dammit, that was NOT the case! If anything, she fell for him because he was so DIFFERENT from Sasuke.

Through the months she had worked one-on-one with Sai, she had seen so many different sides of him - sides she hated, sides she loved. But she found she could _accept_ every single one of them.

And that realization sent a jolt through her.

She was in love.

Again.

* * *

His hand paused when he felt her stiffen. Moving away slightly, he saw her flushed cheeks and asked, "What's wrong?"

She shook her head furiously and answered, "Nothing."

Sai mentally shrugged and continued guiding her hand, trying to salvage the sketch as best as he could. Sakura really wasn't lying when she said she had no artistic talent at all, but then again, Sai's bountiful drawing talent evened the balance a bit, and by the time night had completely fallen, the tree on the page looked like a tree again.

When he released her hand, she jumped up, still rather flustered, and hurriedly said, "Goodnight" before turning her heel and leaving in the direction of the futon.

An almost imperceptible frown marred his smooth brow as he looked upon the form of Sakura, curled under the sheets. It wasn't like her to be this jumpy. But then again, she was prone to change moods just like that, so it didn't surprise him too much. Maybe she was just having one of those days.

Under the sheets, Sakura took deep breaths and decided to think. Now an older, and hopefully _wiser_ young woman, Sakura knew that her chances with Sai, while not exactly non-existent, would be slim. While not as socially retarded as he used to, he still didn't have an excellent grip on his emotions. Furthermore, relationships between shinobi were often precarious – it was hard to say when the other might fall in the line of duty.

To Sakura, being honest to herself about her feelings was already enough. People said that it was better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all, but Sakura thought that maybe in her case, it might just be better to simply love, without the chancing the losing part. Watching from afar wasn't that bad – it just took a little bit of inner strength.

Hell, she was strong enough to take a little bit of unrequited love, wasn't she?

Maybe someday she would get over him and find herself a nice, civilian man – strong enough to know that one day she might suddenly leave him but not so strong that he would be overprotective. Someone who would not be afraid of the burden that shinobi carried, someone who could hopefully share her burden. And maybe someday, have some kids – _adopt_ some kids, and build that future she had always envisioned with Sasuke, full of laughter and joy.

* * *

"Don't act too excited," Sai warned, as the two walked down the corridor to the foyer, where Ino and Izumo were undoubtedly waiting. Mara had sent for them only moments ago, yet Sakura already was halfway down the hall when Sai caught up to her and pulled her behind him.

"I'll try," Sakura said, almost biting her lip in anticipation. Months parading as housewife living in luxury had really taken a toll on her emotions - she was finding it much harder than it should to suppress the feelings she felt.

Ever since Ino's letter had reached the two of them at the onsen, both shinobi had been impatiently waiting for the time when they would see Ino again, eager to glean more information from her. With her charm, Ino would undoubtedly be able to provide a clearer and more accurate description of what they might be going up against.

The two were taken by surprise when, instead of one blond-haired, blue-eyed woman greeting them with a smile, there was a brown-haired, brown-eyed one in her place. Izumo was standing beside Tenten, a rather strained smile on his face.

Tenten and Izumo bowed, and Sai gestured for them to sit down as he and Sakura sat down as well.

Clearing his throat, Sai said, "Thank you for rescheduling this appointment. Your help is greatly appreciated by Kanako, I would imagine."

Sakura smiled and replied, "Yes, that is true."

Turning to the two in front of her, she asked, "I haven't seen you before. May I ask who you are?"

Tenten smiled and bowed, while Izumo answered, "This is my sister, my lady."

"Oh?" Sakura said, pretending to be surprised. "Is your wife unwell? I was hoping to discuss the finer points of Junko's ornamentation with her."

Izumo looked away and mumbled, "Yes, my lady. I'm afraid she is currently unwell, and is resting at home."

Sakura nodded her head and replied, "Oh, I see. Well, please send her my greetings."

"Of course," he replied. After a pause, Izumo started again. "My sister came with me because I am afraid some of the measurements for Kanako-sama's skirts don't match up. We will have to remeasure you."

Sai scowled and pretended to be annoyed. "How could you have done that? How hard is it to make correct measurements?"

"I'm sorry, my lord," Izumo murmured, bowing low. Sakura placed a hand on Sai's, playing the part of the placating wife, and turned to the pair in front of her. "It is no problem. Let us go into an adjoining room."

Turning to the elderly servant at the door, Sakura instructed, "Mara, please tell Junko that these two are here again, and that if she has any last minute requests she should say so now."

Mara bowed and turned to go, while Sai and Sakura stood up and led the way to a room down the hall.

When the door shut securely and two clones had been dispatched to keep watch, Sai and Sakura dispelled their transformations and turned expectantly to Izumo and Tenten.

"So...did Ino get held up on her mission?" Sakura lightly asked, unable to shake off the concern she felt for her friend.

"Uh..." Tenten looked highly uncomfortable, and it was only up close that Sakura could see the dark circles under her eyes. Izumo looked even more tired and haggard - it was obvious he had gotten no sleep at all the night before.

The sense of foreboding in Sakura mounted as Tenten shifted uncomfortably and Izumo stood stock-still in the silence. Feeling the first vestiges of anger break through her worry, she asked, "What's wrong? Why are you guys so silent? Where's Ino?"

"Sakura-" Tenten started.

"She's dead," Izumo numbly interrupted. Looking directly at Sakura, he repeated, "She's gone. Her mission cover got blown and turns out they had shinobi on their side too. One chuunin dressed up as a geisha had no chance against three jounins."

"Dead, huh?" Sakura numbly asked.

And then she fell, crumpling in a heap on the floor, Sai's concerned face the last thing swimming into her vision as she blacked out.

* * *

**a/n: **I know you're all probably tired of hearing my apologies and excuses. But if you're not, hear them again!

I'm SO SORRY for the delay. I realize it's been like...almost a month since I updated, but life has gotten in the way (once again!). And I got a rather persistent case of I-know-what-I-want-to-write-but-it-just-won't-come-out-properly. Very sorry.

Ahem. Onto the real stuff. So yeah, this chapter is sad. I didn't want to kill Ino. But I had to. I think you guys (especially those who have been asking for more fluff!) will like the next chapter. I really do.

And I'm going to apologize in advance for the next chapter - it might end up being rather OOC, at least on Sai's part. I hope not. You'll get what I mean when you see it. And it's almost done (!) so I'll post it early. To make up for this one :P


	13. For Remembrance

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 13: For Remembrance**

**a/n: **Before I go on, I just want to say this once and for all: I killed Ino, not because I hate her or anything like that, but because I _had_ to. She's an interesting and important character, in canon and otherwise. I just wanted to make sure I got the point across, because lots of people were upset that I killed Ino. So no, it's not out of personal spite :)**  
**

* * *

Izumo and Tenten had left, Sai had made up an excuse, and Sakura was safely back into their room, tucked securely under the covers. 

And Sai sat, waiting for the moment she would wake. And he sat. And waited. And waited.

And when the sun was overhead and his obligations as the daimyo couldn't be held back anymore, he got up and walked out the door.

He turned to look back but stopped just in time – the image of a broken, unconscious Sakura, burned into his mind since the first time he had carried her home after she had gotten drunk over Sasuke, was enough for a lifetime.

He did not need the second time.

When Sakura came to, only a blank wall and Sai's dwindling chakra signature greeted her.

As her feet slowly kicked the covers off, her hands placed themselves in a familiar hand seal. She knew what she needed.

Walking into their spacious, shared room, Sai caught the telltale whiff of alcohol and knew that Sakura had, once again, been trying to drown her sorrow and grief in liquor.

Seeing her slight form sprawled on the low table at the foot of their futon, with glass bottles scattered here and there, Sai felt a pang of worry for the pink-haired female.

"Hey Ugly, are you sure you should drink that much?" he asked, keeping his voice light and even.

"Why can't I?" she hiccupped, swigging down another gulp from the bottle in her hand.

"And how did you get all that booze?" he continued, picking up empty bottles that surrounded her sitting form. "I hope you didn't do anything out of character that would blow our cover."

Snorting, Sakura replied, "I'm a kunoichi, dammit. I cloned m'self and snuck down into the wine cellar and brought back lots of good stuff. Stuff that I used to drink with…"

Not finishing her sentence, she turned back to the bottle and gulped a huge amount, spilling some down her chin.

While the bottle in her hand contained beer, a quick look on the floor told Sai that it hadn't been _only_ beer that she had been drinking – there was wine and vodka and a small shot bottle of what appeared to be strong brandy, and stuff whose names Sai couldn't even pronounce because they were foreign.

"Ino-san wouldn't want to see you like this," Sai quietly said, setting himself down beside her.

"What would _you_ know about Ino?" she snapped, her sobriety returning somewhat from her anger at his words. She turned her head away from him so that he wouldn't see the tears that streaked her visage.

"She was a kunoichi of Konoha, and she gave her life being one," Sai steadily continued. "She gave her life so that _we_ could go on protecting our clients. I hope you remember that."

"I know," Sakura whispered. "Trust me, I do. But it's just…she…she's my best friend. She always was."

Sai wordlessly helped himself to an unopened beer from the table. After several moments, he said, "I remember when my brother died."

Sakura froze. She knew the topic of his brother was a sensitive topic with Sai – she could count the number of times they had spoken about him on one hand.

"It was like my world came crashing down," he continued. "I just couldn't go on."

Looking directly at Sakura, Sai went on. "But I had to. Partly because it was my duty, but also partly because I knew he would be upset if he saw I was like that. So I went on with life in Root, although I closed myself up tightly."

At that, Sakura laughed mirthlessly. "Close yourself up, huh? If only I could do that."

"I don't think anyone would like it if you did that," Sai quietly replied.

Sakura sobered slightly, but continued to wear that sad smile on her face. Giving her head a shake, she focused on her attentions on the alcohol in front of her, seemingly willing to drown herself in the vile liquid.

Sai was slightly jolted from his own thoughts when Sakura broke the silence again.

"You know Sai, how people drink to forget their sorrows?" she asked, cocking her head in his direction. When he nodded, she went on.

"Well…I drink to remember."

And nothing else needed to be said as Sakura once again gave in to the sorrow that was swallowing her whole.

Evening faded into night, giving way to an inky black sky scattered with stars. It really wasn't fair that such a night would be spent mourning a young, vivacious kunoichi who died for her village. The two of them should have been sketching, or talking, or even just sitting in amicable silence. But instead, Sakura was drinking like she had never drank before and he could do nothing except sit at her side. And she drank and drank until the stars had gone out and given way into the darkest, blackest time of night – the darkest hour before dawn came.

When Sakura's hand reached for more and only touched empty and up-ended glass bottles, she hiccupped and looked around blearily, completely wasted.

Her eyes locked onto the dozing male beside her. Her hand, of its own volition, reached out to him. But even that wasn't enough – she just needed something, _someone_ to hold her, just to get her through this _one_ night.

Sakura buried her face into Sai's neck, sighing deeply as the alcohol in her system continued to make her less coordinated. Roused by the warmth radiating from the woman who held her arms tightly around him, Sai gave his head a slight shake, clearing his head instantly – the small amount of beer he had drunk didn't affect him in the slightest. Sai could smell the alcohol on her, yet he could also faintly make out the undertone of her booze-laced scent – that smell that was so _Sakura_ that he didn't think it would ever be able to leave his mind.

And though a small part of him was grieving for that blonde kunoichi who had always been so kind to him, the larger part of the heart he was so not in touch with was beating faster because of the pink-haired woman's close proximity. Sai just didn't understand.

It was _that_feeling again. _It_had appeared when he first carried her home, utterly drunk as she was now, when they had been training and she had looked to the sunset with her wide jade eyes, at a crossroads in her life. It had appeared when she hesitated at the gates of Konoha, when she beat him into the ground but always grudgingly held out a gloved hand for him to take.

Was this the _love_ everyone back in Konoha always spoke of? The love that caused Sakura to welcome Sasuke back into Konoha with open arms, the love that caused Naruto to, against all odds, bring Sasuke _back_ to Konoha, the love that Kakashi-san said he would one day understand? _Did_ he understand it?

But as his eyes turned to the drowsy kunoichi resting on his shoulder, he found that he didn't _need_ to understand it – he simply _felt_ it. It was stronger than the fiercest ocean waves, brighter than the midday sun, warmer than wildly dancing flames, softer than his most delicate brush, more tender than the looks he had seen exchanged by the many couples in Konoha.

He couldn't help but smile down at her, and reached with his other hand to brush away a lock of hair that hid her left cheek from his view. As his finger slid across the high slope of her cheekbone, Sakura's eyes opened and she sighed.

Twisting her neck slightly to look into his gaze, she saw with utmost clarity the depth of the emotions he was currently feeling. Maybe it was because she was awfully drunk. Maybe it was because the grief was messing with her mind. Maybe it was the fact that she was just so_lonely_at the moment, and he was _right_there. But that small glimpse into his usually fathomless eyes was enough for her.

She planted her lips firmly against his.

It was so sudden that Sai couldn't react. He had not anticipated this at all. By all rights, he probably should have been pushing her away and telling her that drinking on the job, even if her best friend had just been killed, was bad.

But he couldn't. He just couldn't.

Never before had Sai lost control of himself like he had, right then and there.

The feel of her soft lips against his was swiftly fanning the glowing embers inside his heart – the slowly burning feelings he had for the kunoichi. His other arm wrapped around her as well as he hesitantly began to reciprocate the kiss.

And then the glowing embers burst into flame.

He had never been kissed like this before – never been kissed would actually be the more accurate description. One without feelings could not feel love; one without love could not kiss like this.

He moved completely upon instinct, his increasing heart rate like a drum that was edging him on and on. Sakura was completely crushed against him – he could feel that her heart, too, was pounding as madly as his.

And without thinking, he tipped her over so that she was lying on her back with him above her. It seemed like a natural progression of events. Feeling her hands on the back of his neck push his head lower, Sai softly pressed his lips against hers, and was rewarded with the sensation of her legs moving tighter around his waist. His kisses moved lower until his face was buried in the crook of her neck, her pulse thundering beneath his full lips.

She gave a contented sigh, his name a whisper upon her lips.

Yet no matter how pumped full of adrenaline he was, no matter how much his instinct was driving him in the right direction, nothing could have prepared him for the softly words she uttered next.

"I think I love you."

His eyes widened for a split second as his arms gave way. Stopping short of crushing her, he lifted his head up to look at the woman beneath him. Something in his heart soared so high that it felt like it was crashing down at the same time. Lowering his head down to the warm hollow her neck again, his arms found their way under her to hold her, cradling her as if to protect her from the outside world.

"Sakura…"

Her name was the only coherent thought in his mind.

* * *

Sai couldn't quite remember how long he had held her in that position. Her scent, her presence, the tingling feeling of her lips against his – they all melded together and covered him in a haze of blurred feelings, as if he was drunk on her. 

He_did_ remember feeling the pleasant waves of sleep come over him, and the next thing he knew, the sun was in his eyes and it was morning. There was a pink-haired female curled up beside him, her face in his chest and one long, slender leg thrown over his. His own arm was wrapped around her waist and he couldn't feel his other arm – it was under the slumbering kunoichi.

Gently extricating his body from beneath Sakura, Sai moved so that he could clearly see her in the early morning light. She looked exactly the same – with her pink hair, toned body and the green eyes that were hidden beneath ivory eyelids. Yet somehow, _something_ seemed different about seeing her now. It was as if all this time he was seeing her behind plastic film, and now that piece of film was ripped off, leaving behind the real, genuine Sakura.

He reached out his hand to shake her awake, but thinking back to the obscene amount of alcohol she had consumed the night before, he retracted the limb – there was no sense in waking her up and incurring her wrath if it could be avoided. It would be best to let her sleep it off and pass it off to the rest of the household as a slight ailment.

To his surprise, when he informed Mara that Sakura was not to be disturbed because she had fainted the day before and was feeling absolutely _terrible_, the old woman merely nodded knowing and sighed, saying, "Ah, that is to be expected."

_What_ is to be expected? Did Kanako have chronic fainting spells or something like that?

* * *

Sakura awoke to the rays of a setting sun, brilliant as it always was. And all of a sudden, she was overcome with an anger stronger than she had ever felt. What business did the sun have, shining so brilliantly and being so heartbreakingly _beautiful?_ The whole fucking world should be crying, crying for the vivid flame that had been snuffed out, for the beautiful, _heartbreakingly_beautiful Ino, who had once been her everything, still _had_ been part of her everything. 

And when Sakura realized she was thinking about Ino in the past tense, she broke down and cried.

She tried to muffle her sobs when she heard the screen door open, quiet footsteps announcing Sai's arrival. But when Sai slid under the covers and wrapped his arms around her shaking form, Sakura could no longer suppress her sobs and turned around, clutching the front of his robes, crying her heart out.

It just hurt too much.

* * *

**a/n: ** I had been _trying_ to write more for this chapter, but I thought it would interrupt the flow if I introduced a new theme. I had been mulling it over and over and over, so I guess you guys are just going to have to make do with this chapter :\ I'm sorry. For the lateness as well - I swore I would get it to you guys on time, but meh. Life's been really tough - I've been really sick on and off and stuff has happened, so yeah. 

Hope the romance didn't kill any of you ;) Oh and this is unbeta-ed, so yeah. Please point out any grammar/spelling/other mistakes please!


	14. Realizations

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 14: Realizations**

* * *

"Really, Mara-san, I'm fine," Sakura sighed, half-heartedly trying to evade the old woman's attempts to sit her down. "I'm fine, I really am." 

"After such a fainting spell yesterday, Kanako-sama, you _must_ at least sit yourself down!" Mara exclaimed. "Heaven knows what will happen if…"

Sakura shot Mara a look. "If what?"

Shaking her head slightly, Mara replied, "Oh, nothing, it's my age that gets me talking strangely sometimes."

Sakura dismissed Mara's behaviour as paranoia and finally conceded defeat, sitting down with a grand sigh on the large, comfy chair. She put her head in her hands when Mara left the room, thankful for some quiet time to just think.

Yesterday's crying episode had been exhausting on both her tear glands and her emotions – it had been quite a while since she had cried like that. In fact, it might have been when Sasuke had left her. But as of now, her past with Sasuke was the farthest thing from her cluttered mind.

She had received word that Ino's body had been successfully recovered from the enemy shinobi by a jounin cell, thus eliminating the risk of exposing the Yamanaka clan jutsu to other groups of shinobi. There would be a funeral in two days; she wondered how Ino's mother and father, and Izumo, were holding up. She wondered whether they would run their fingers sadly but affectionately along the section of the memorial stone where her name would undoubtedly be carved. Sakura wished desperately that she could be there for them, that she could be the strong shoulder on which they all could cry on, but as in all things, her duty as a kunoichi came first.

Sakura closed her eyes. She just wanted to run away – away from all the obligations she carried as a shinobi serving a village, away from all the hurt and sadness in the world, away from responsibility; she wanted to go to a place where she could be ignorant of suffering in general.

To know that your existence was for the survival of your village – it was a tiring thing. When Sakura signed up for the Academy at age six, this was _not_ what she had signed up for. At that young age, she had simply not wanted to follow in her parents' seemingly boring footsteps, and had wanted to live a life full of "adventure" and "danger". She had not truly comprehended the meaning of being a living weapon.

While she didn't exactly regret her decision, she _did_ sometimes wonder what life would have been like had she stuck to the family business instead of stepping out and becoming a kunoichi.

For one, she would probably still be living in the lap of luxury – the Haruno family business was one of the most successful in Konoha, and Sakura had grown up sheltered and pampered. This was perhaps what attributed the most to her naïve attitude about life and love when she was younger – she really _had_ believed that love could conquer all and that the good side always won.

Now that she was older, she knew that love didn't mean promises were kept. Love didn't mean sadness wouldn't be present. Love wasn't an invincible shelter for her to wrap herself in. Sure, it felt nice at times, but love could hurt too – hurt so much that at times she wished she didn't have a heart.

Most of all, she had learned, time and time again, that the good side did_not_ always win. More confusingly, she found herself wondering whether if there even _was_ a good side and a bad side. As she found herself being able to empathize more and more with other people, she discovered that she didn't necessarily disagree with her opponent's opinions. This was a huge revelation for her – weren't all her enemies "evil" people who only wanted to hurt innocents? When did they turn out to be people who only cared about their village – just like her? When did they turn out to be people who smiled, cried, laughed, hurt, and loved, just like her?

She was so tired of justifying her stance on things, so tired of realizing that the world wasn't black and white, but was actually comprised of overlapping shades of gray.

If she didn't become a kunoichi, such revelations would be non-existent. At the ripe old age of seventeen, Sakura probably would have been married four years ago. She would have been paired with a rich heir her age, and that would have been the end of that.

But she made a choice.

And then her parents had decided that a daughter – a wayward, disobedient daughter, was not essential to the livelihood of their business. Her "occupation" had been accepted but sniffed at when she became a genin, but her parents never interacted with her the same way they had before. The deal was closed when Sasuke became the disgrace of the village – she was out of the house and onto the street in a heartbeat.

To be perfectly honest, Sakura didn't mind that much – she had never been close to her father, who preferred to spend his time teaching her two elder brothers the ropes to managing a business, and her mother had been a flighty gossip whose favourite pastime had been to stroll around town, jabbering away with ladies of a similar disposition. Her two elder brothers had been good to her, but emotionally she felt as if the three of them were merely acquaintances that got along well – she never really _knew_ her brothers the way she grew to know her team.

At twelve she was left alone by her blood relatives but got taken in by Tsunade. It was a new beginning for her – a fresh start without her previous, fanciful outlook on life.

With only seventeen years under her belt, Sakura felt incredibly tired – she had laughed, cried, seen death, _become_ death, killed more than she could count and felt like she had been killed more times than she would care to remember. She had experienced the highs of being in love and the lows of having a broken heart.

And now she was stuck in limbo.

Sakura was feeling oh-so-low at Ino's death, and yet found herself puzzling over the realization that she was in love with _another_ dark-haired teammate. Her feelings – they had to have formed over time gradually, right? So was there a specific time, a specific occasion, maybe a look, a gesture, or _something_ that could have given her a clue that her heart was finally opening up again?

Sakura frowned as she pondered that thought. But soon her mind was flying to the memory of the night before. In truth, she couldn't remember much of what had happened the night she had first heard the news. Somewhere between her last shot of vodka and her fifth bottle of beer, things had gotten hazy. She remembered hearing Sai come in, but couldn't quite remember what they had talked about. She remembered he had opened a beer for himself too, but wasn't sure if he had gotten drunk. Amid the muddled pile of memories, she thought she remembered the feel of soft lips against hers, but then again, it could have been wishful dreaming – she found that she dreamed about him a lot lately.

Sakura gave a start when the door creaked open; she was barely able to control her instinct of jumping up before Sai came in.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked, leaning slightly against the doorframe. Sakura nodded slowly, a blush coming up to her cheeks are she remembered how he had held her when she had cried.

He nodded, and to her surprise, turned and left. Sakura frowned – Sai was a disinterested person by nature, but not _this_ disinterested. Even before he had gotten socially wiser, he would at least sit down silently beside her if she was upset. And Ino's death was most certainly, _very_ upsetting for her. Sai had been so warm towards her before – why was he now so cold?

Sakura shook her head and scolded herself – it was just one tiny thing, and she was already rationalizing over it? He was probably just as tired as herself, having spent the good part of a day with her in bed as she alternated between dozing and crying. Sakura promised herself that she would give him space, just in case he really _was_ getting tired of her presence.

Her inner ramblings were once again interrupted when Mara bustled in the room, carrying a tray. When the servant set the tray down, Sakura smiled and said, "Mara-san, I already said I wasn't hungry. You really didn't have to bring all that."

With her hands on her hips, Mara was the image of a disapproving mother. "Now, Kanako-sama, you _do_know that no matter how much you don't want to, you _have_ to eat! What happened to your appetite? Even if you're not hungry, think about the little one!"

After a beat, Sakura's mind registered what the elderly lady had just said. A wave of light-headedness washed over Sakura.

"If you don't mind, Mara-san, I think I'm going to faint again."

And down she went.

* * *

"Well, that was rather dramatic of you, wasn't it, Ugly?" Sai asked lightly. Sakura couldn't even speak – she was so shaken up by Mara's words. 

"How could Junko not have told us?" Sakura whispered, her hand unconsciously touching her abdomen. "How _could_she?"

Sai shrugged. "Actually, no one else seemed to know. To be honest, I think only Mara knows about the baby."

Sakura stopped. Turning to the male beside her, she slowly said, "Wait a second. The rest of the household _don't know_?"

"It seems like it," he replied. "Ever since I found out, I've been observing the behaviour of the staff and Junko. They all seem very curious as to why you've been fainting so much. Junko, in particular, as been asking very often what was wrong with you. And Mara has been telling everyone that the stress of the wedding preparations have been taking a toll on you. Everyone says you should just take it easy and that you don't have to do everything personally."

"Furthermore," he continued, "don't you find it strange that the household isn't buzzing about the imminent arrival of an heir? I mean, didn't Junko say that Kanako-san wasn't able to have children? If the news of her pregnancy had gotten out, I am positive that the household would be celebrating day and night."

Sakura pondered his words. It _was_ true that the household probably would have been a lot rowdier and excited had the Takahashi couple come clean about their impending arrival. There would probably have been many important officials and their families who would call at the residence, bearing gifts of goodwill and such.

And yet, no one seemed to know.

But why? Why on earth would they want to hide something as joyous as this?

"It doesn't make sense," Sakura murmured, her hands fisted tightly in the sheets. "Why wouldn't they tell someone? Anyone! From what you've said, that means only the two of them, Mara-san, and the doctor know!"

Sai nodded, his expression thoughtful. Standing up, he walked in the direction of the door, and sending one last look behind him, left without a word.

She just didn't get it. It was troublesome enough with the new development in their mission – did Sai have to turn his back upon her now?

He was acting _normal_. Just like when they had first become teammates and they still didn't know each other well. It puzzled her, to say the least, that he was being so detached. But more than anything, it hurt – things had seemed to be going nicely at first, but now…

Sakura rubbed her eyes and groaned. She couldn't believe she was in bed, in the middle of the day, when there were things to be done and information to process and a wedding to be planned. It was no wonder Sai had left – he had a million other things to do as well.

Slowly getting up and draping a shawl around her body, Sakura wondered why she was so emotionally weak.

To Sai, things clicked in place pretty quickly – the daimyo had originally planned to bring Junko along with him and his wife. And then he had somehow found out about her secret trysts with her man and coincidentally, they found out about Kanako's pregnancy at the same time. For Hideki, it would have been pretty much a blessing – given an heir _and_ an opportunity to wash his hands of his sister, the woman in his household who he paid next to no attention to.

Sai didn't consider himself very kind or caring, but it was clear even to him that the daimyo's actions weren't something that anyone should be proud of. He didn't have any younger siblings, but he had once had an elder brother who wasn't even related by blood, and his brother had _never_ turned his back on him, no matter what the situation.

Flipping through the household accounts that Sakura had left on the desk, he mentally checked off all the clues that had hinted to this revelation – the hastily crossed out fees, the strange doctor's fees that kept popping up every month and sometimes every week. Thinking back, he realized that Mara-san had always instructed the kitchen staff to prepare a larger portion of Sakura – the two of them had never really commented on it because of the fact that Sakura could finish the entire thing.

Leaning back in his chair, Sai suppressed a sigh – since _when_ had such a simple mission become so _not_ simple?

First of all, there was all this mystery about the daimyo and his intentions, and then there's the whole drama about the covered-up pregnancy as well as Junko's outside affair, and even his own relationship with Sakura was…

He closed his eyes as soon as he hit that train of thought. When Sai had left Sakura to her own devices earlier on, he hadn't turned around because he hadn't wanted to see the hurt expression that was undoubtedly on her face. He knew he wasn't exactly being fair to her – he didn't know how much she remembered from what they done the night before, but at the same time, he _had_ kissed her and _had_ meant it, at least at the time.

It wasn't that he didn't mean it now – that was the exact problem. The fact that he _meant_ it, and the fact that there was a dormant part of him that wanted a repeat of the night before, scared him to no end. Sai had never, in his whole life, felt something as strong as he did for Sakura.

Sure, he felt protective towards his teammates, no matter how annoying they were, and he felt loyalty to his village, something that had been ingrained into his mind since a young age, and he felt amusement whenever Naruto did stupid things back in Konoha. But what he felt for Sakura – the sheer _intensity_ of the feelings – scared him enormously.

And things didn't scare Sai very easily.

He wasn't ANBU for nothing – there was just about nothing in the physical world that could scare him. Emotionally, he was just as strong, being part of Root until a couple years ago. But his – dare he say it? – love, for Sakura was something he had _never_ experienced before. For him, if he were to acknowledge and act upon his desires, it would be walking straight into completely uncharted territory.

Sai hated to admit it, but he _liked_ the comfort of the friendship he had with Sakura. He _liked_ the way they bantered, playfully or otherwise, and the easy conversations he sometimes had with her. He liked how he could just stand back and _admire_, and not have to actually be in the forefront with her.

Additionally, in regards to Sakura, Sai was slightly ashamed to admit that he wasn't sure whether Sakura thought she loved _him_, or the shadow of Sasuke that he was known as.

She had said a long time ago that she really _was_ over Sasuke, but he knew Sakura well, and knew that she was a committed and loyal woman – she may have said that she was over him, and believe it herself, but Sai was more hesitant.

Deep down inside himself, Sai knew that he was afraid, more than anything, of stepping out and being with her and ending up with hurt feelings and broken hearts. She had so much more experience than he had with relationships, no matter how twisted her relationships tended to be.

_Things would be fine if we just went back to what we used to be,_ Sai thought, as he silently closed the heavy book and placed it into the drawer that is usually rested in.

What Sai never realized was that Sakura was just as vulnerable as he was. Perhaps even more so. Experience didn't make you immune to heartbreak, after all.

* * *

a/n: Finally an update, eh? I'm sorry. Things called midterms just love to mess with my life. 

Anyhow...well, now you guys know what's up. And I'll tell you that there is major foreshadowing in this chapter ;) And there'll be more action coming up...please be nice to my action scenes - I know they're not the best, but that's the reason why I continue writing, right? To improve :D And...I realize that Sakura and Sai are both rather OOC at this point, but for Sakura, I'll attribute that to the fact that 1) she's emotionally strained due to Ino's death and 2) she's found herself in love again, and is confused. For Sai...well, throughout the whole story, I've been trying to get his character to open up more and such...so I guess he's OOC in terms of canon but not for the purposes for the story.

On a side note, this story and **Of Copycats and Cherry Blossoms** (KakaSaku) will be the only things I will ever post in this account again. I feel that as a writer, my writing style has changed significantly from when I first made this account - enough for me to want to make a new account. So yes, I have created a new account under the name **inkclone**. There's nothing up yet, but I'll be posting a lot of Bleach stuff that I've written in the past while, as well as any new Naruto stuff I might come up with. So if you guys want, please check that account from time to time - I'll start posting on that account as soon as I've amassed enough drabbles to start a collection.

Enjoy!


	15. Unravel

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 15: Unravel**

* * *

"Okay, so we've come to the conclusion that Kanako is pregnant with his heir, Junko was left behind becaue he didn't need her anymore, and from what we've seen of Hideki's calculating abilities, chances are this threat that he speaks of is true," Sakura reiterated, once again up and running after the miserable days of feeling sorry for herself. 

Haruno Sakura was stronger than that, hell yes. She wasn't going to let no pretty-boy bring down again - she'd been there, done that.

"Yes," Sai agreed, twirling a paintbrush thoughtfully in his fingers. Determined as she was _not_ to let him get to her, Sakura couldn't help but follow the movements of his fingers with her green eyes.

Clearing her throat to clear her mind, Sakura continued, "Based on the information we were able to get from Ino, we know that there is something - we don't know what - strange brewing up in Junko's fiance's clan."

Sai nodded. "According to Ino-san, they've got at least three jounins, probably hired missing-nins or deserters. They have no affiliation with any ninja village we know of."

"Yes. Their clan is supposed to be a pretty simple trading company, but historical records imply that under-the-table dealings are the real reason why they have become so successful in such a short amount of time," Sakura added.

"And normally, this would probably be a simple job for chuunins, maybe, but since the daimyo himself is concerned, we should be more cautious," Sai said. "See the thing is, Hideki and Kanako-san, as well as the baby, are all safe in Konoha. But I think the problem lies within Junko."

Sakura's froze. How could she have forgotten about Junko? If _no one_ knew about the baby, then _she_ was the one people would try to target.

"That means that," Sakura gasped, "chances are that the marriage contract is..."

"Yes," Sai confirmed. "The contract might not be valid at all. The way things are going now, I wouldn't be surprised if their real motive was to get to Hideki through Junko."

"We can't let that happen," Sakura bit, her fingers fisting unconsciously.

"That's not part of our mission," Sai slowly said. "We just have to eliminate the threat. Which is, in all probability, the shinobi that they have employed. And if we can get them through Junko..."

She could hardly believe her ears. Throwing her hands up into the air in disgust, she asked, "And you just expect me to lay around and let her get hurt? That's just as bad as the man who calls himself her brother."

Taking a deep breath, she continued, "What would your brother say if he heard what you just said?"

That seemed to touch a nerve with Sai - his fingers stopped twirling the paintbrush and the brush clattered to the floor, breaking the tense silence.

Sakura almost regret saying that before Sai cut in her thoughts and said, "Fine. But that's going to require much more planning, to make sure she doesn't find out about anything and to keep her from messing things up."

She let out the breath she had been holding as Sai promptly stood up and left, leaving Sakura to watch his retreating back.

_Well, that went well_, she thought, rather sardonically. _Way to go, Sakura, bringing up such a sensitive topic with him…_

But it was the truth. How _would_ his brother have felt, if he had seen Sai? And for another thing, Sai had agreed at the beginning of the mission that they would protect the innocents, so matter what.

Sakura sighed again. She'd been doing a lot of that lately. It didn't suit her at all, moping around and doing nothing, but information-gathering missions tended to need patience and careful manuevering, neither of which Sakura had plenty. She much preferred action on the field, because that was when her fists came in handy, but she had learned early on that one couldn't have everything in life.

Feeling terrible for thinking so, Sakura rather hoped that the coming days would bring more excitement into her mundane days. Life as a pampered lady was nice, but just not her.

* * *

"This is ridiculous," Sakura announced, as she lifted her hands helplessly to emphasize her disbelief at the pile of papers on the desk. Sai didn't do much except to lift an eyebrow slightly and go back to work. 

She continued, past caring whether he heard or not. "I know that there's a wedding coming up, and I know that it's the daimyo's birthday in four days, but there's absolutely _no way_ that one lady can plan everything all at once. It's no wonder the life expectancy of civilian women is almost as low as those of kunoichi."

"I believe most lords have secretaries, personal assistants, or the like to help them with their planning," Sai dryly replied, "but seeing as Hideki is a paranoid twit, I'm not surprised that he only has his dedicated wife to help him."

"Yes, but said 'dedicated wife' is currently being safeguarded in _our_ village so that's a lot of help there," Sakura bit, sitting back down and wishing her shinobi skills could do more for paperwork.

Sakura shook her head. If this was her mission, she'd sure as hell do it well, no matter how stupid planning a gala for a birthday was. She would just have to make sure it went down in history as the best birthday gala there had ever been. That's all.

Looking down at the brief page of ceremonies and such that they had to observe during the birthday celebration, Sakura realized that the clan that Junko was marrying into, the Sennami clan, had been invited as well. They were going to be doing the final signing of documents during the birthday bash.

"Sai," she breathed, looking down at the paper. His eyes snapped up to her. "They're coming. The Sennami clan people are coming in four days. It's the perfect opportunity."

He wordlessly plucked the paper from Sakura's hands and skimmed through, reading what she had just told him.

"Ino-san said that they had their own shinobi," Sai slowly said. "If they were looking for an opportunity to assimilate the daimyo's wealth into their own storehouses, this would be it, I'd imagine."

Sakura nodded fervently, too excited to care that Sai had taken the paper out of her hands. "Yeah, it's perfect. Just two families coming together to signify their upcoming uniting. No one would suspect a thing if they were planning to do something."

"No one except our dear daimyo," Sai replied.

Sakura made a face. "Well, yes, but I think we've come to the conclusion that this guy is strangely intelligent."

"In certain things," Sai agreed. "Anyhow, this could be our chance to get out of here. If we can prove or disprove his claims during the party, we can return to Konoha either way. All we have to do is either eliminate the threat or just report back and say there _was_ no threat."

"Oh, the thought of my own apartment," Sakura swooned. "And training in broad daylight and working in the hospital and _ramen_, oooh, that would be _nice._"

"Hm, don't get ahead of yourself," Sai reminded. "_You've_ still got a wedding to plan, clothes to try on, a birthday bash to put together, _and_ we've got to plan how we're going to proceed in four days."

Sakura could have died from sheer depression. "Why did you have to remind me?" she whined, taking the paper back from him.

He shrugged. "Just a reality check."

"I hate you," she growled. Sai paused slightly in his writing, just enough for Sakura to notice.

"Well, I don't _really_," she amended, "but you get what I mean…right?" She looked hopefully in his direction.

"Mm."

He was getting just as bad as Sasuke these days. Monosyllabic answers had been something she needed to train herself to respond to when she had been with Sasuke, but at least Sai had spoken in sentences back then, no matter how rude his comments always were.

Sakura bit her lip to keep from sighing and continued to work. She knew that most of the wedding preparations could be shifted to Mara and Junko, so that part would be covered quite nicely. The birthday gala, however, would probably be planned by her completely, seeing as she_ was_ the lady of the house. There would be no excuse for her to shirk her duties, seeing as no one really knew about the impending arrival of an infant.

Sakura knew nothing about planning parties.

Sure, she was good as hell at crashing them, but that was a different story. She tended to leave planning of any sort to Ino, the self-proclaimed party queen of Konoha. Well, she _had_ had good taste, so it wasn't really disputed.

What Sakura knew about parties totaled up to alcohol, alcohol, and more alcohol. That was about it. And Sai was no better than her, being as socially inept as he was. Sakura would get no help from him.

"Mmm, chances are high that if the Sennami clan as anything planned out, they'll do it at the gala, right?" Sakura asked, eager to put the actual party planning aside in favour of more interesting endeavours.

"Yes," Sai answered. He put his notes down and looked at her. "What we need to concern ourselves with is how to make sure none of the servants get hurt in the crossfire if we should have to lose our disguises."

Sakura nodded. "Right. But that will be hard. I mean, we'll have servants everywhere, plus Junko and the other clan. And we can't tell anyone about this either. There are bound to be casualties."

"We'll just have to minimize them then," he replied. "First of all, think of seating. You and I will sit close together obviously, so we've got each other covered. The clan head and his intermediate family will also be very close to us. Junko-san, as well, will probably be near."

"Yes, according to tradition, you will sit at the head of the table with me on your right and Junko at your left. The other clan's head will sit at the foot with his son on his right and his wife at his left. Any other women or relatives that he brings will be seated accordingly. We will be seated in the main hall, so there will be servants at each door in and out of the estate and of course, in the kitchens," Sakura said.

"Their bodyguards, which will be the jounins, I'm assuming," Sai continued, "will probably stand near him. We can't just say that they're not allowed into the house, so we'll just have to keep an eye out for them. They shouldn't be too hard for the two of us to get rid of."

"And about Junko, we have make sure they don't get to her either," Sakura reminded.

"Yes, she'll be on my left, so I can protect her easily. We can also invite her in only after the final signing has been completed, since if they try anything they'll probably do it then," Sai answered.

It was true. During the final signing of the documents, it would be the Sennami clan servants who passed the physical agreement and pens back and forth, so it would be easy for them to control when the actual combat would take place. Chances are the Sennami clan head would sign first, and then the servants would bring the papers down the table, to Sai, and if they planned anything they would attack then. Sai would be far away from the clan head and wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Well, that was assuming he was the daimyo and not the seasoned ANBU that he was.

In fact, if events played out as they were sure to, things would actually be better for Sai and Sakura. Most of the servants and other household members would be safe, away from the threat, since Sai and Sakura sat a little bit farther away from the rest of everyone due to their status. If it came down to fighting, their disguises would be meaningless anyway so there would be no need to continue with the façade. In fact, it would be the best if they attacked during the signing, as Junko would still be safe in her room – after all, she was still the heir, if only on paper.

Sakura could have laughed at the sheer simplicity of it – sign papers, get attacked, attack back, mission complete. And that was the worst-case scenario as well.

Things would turn out well.

* * *

There were twenty minutes until the honoured (well, not-so-honoured) guests were due to arrive, and Sakura couldn't find her shuriken holster. 

"_Argh!_" she groaned, at an utter lost. "Where the hell is it?"

Sakura knew it was what she got for not training in so long. After their last, hidden training session nearly two weeks ago, she had thrown it off somewhere nice and inconspicuous and now that she needed it, she couldn't find it.

"You should place your things better," Sai commented, dropping her much sought-after holster in her lap. Sakura could have cried with relief.

"Thanks!" she smiled. "Where'd you find it?"

Sai poked a finger towards the bathroom.

Oh. She had probably been so intent on getting a bath after training that she'd just left it in there. It was lucky that the servants hadn't found it. But then again, they probably wouldn't comment it they

_had_ found it – it seemed to be ingrained in their minds that servants should be seen and not heard.

With her usual clothes on underneath her kimono, Sakura felt safe. And being the smart woman that she tended to be, she had opted out of wearing those traditional, multi-layered kimono that noblewomen were supposed to wear to fancy occasions. Instead, Sakura had taken the time to take a very fine, thin kimono and sew the hems of many different kimono to _its_ hem, to give the appearance of her wearing many different layers. That way, she could _move_ and look like a lady at the same time. It was a win-win situation.

Apart from that adjustment, there were half a dozen senbon in her hair and countless other weapons hidden here and there. Sakura had never felt safer, and that was just counting _her_ weapons.

Sai went ahead of her to oversee some more preparations, so she left the room alone. Gracefully walking down the corridor, Sakura was surprised when Junko came out of a room to her left and stopped her.

"What is it, Junko-san?" Sakura asked. It had been a while since she had last had one of those reading sessions with Junko – things had just been too hectic for her to spare time reading trashy romances.

Junko smiled. "I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you doing this for us. It must be hard for you to go from a seasoned fighter to a lady all in such a short amount of time."

Sakura laughed. "Well, it's hard, but this is my mission. And I don't fail missions."

It was Junko's turn to smile. "I suppose so. Either way, I just wanted to give you my thanks. I'll always remember this."

Sakura's eyes softened. Junko said no more but turned to go, leaving Sakura behind.

This feeling of being needed, this feeling of getting thanked by someone who had benefited from her being a kunoichi – times like these kept her going when things got tough. It was true that being a kunoichi was hard and downright _painful_ at times, but seeing that people who couldn't help themselves getting helped and being grateful was very, _very_ gratifying.

"Don't forget to stay in your room until we call you out!" Sakura called down the hall, and she received a smile and a nod in return. Satisfied, Sakura entered the chaotic main hall to help Sai oversee things.

* * *

"I must thank you for agreeing to this marriage," the Sennami clan head said, for what felt like the millionth time. Sakura forced herself to keep smiling as Sai and the other man shared light conversation. It was just _so dull_. 

She couldn't understand why the daimyo felt threatened by _this_ man and his family. They were dull, utterly boring, unbelievable_stupid_, and his son wasn't even _that_ good-looking. Well, Sakura had been surrounded by good-looking men and boys on her team, and in most of her circle of friends, so she might have had high expectations, but still. Junko was easily _much_ more beautiful than her prospective husband.

Sakura was more interested in the four men standing behind the clan head. It was obvious that they were shinobi – they hadn't even bothered to hide it. Judging by appearances alone, they did appear to be jounin-class or close to it, and seemed well-armed and ready to go at anytime. One in particular reminded her of the jounin Baki, from Suna – Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou's old sensei. His darting eyes, obviously observant, were reminiscent of Baki's.

Suddenly, the serene atmosphere was broken by a huffing servant, who burst into the room.

"H-Hideki-sama," she panted. "J-Junko-sama…Junko-sama's not in her room!"

"What?" Sai sharply asked, rising to his feet.

"S-she left a note," the servant gulped. "I-it s-s-seems like she's…eloped." She finished speaking in a whisper, as if afraid that the last word would spark a war.

Sakura could have slapped her forehead with exasperation. Well, there went the perfectly tailored plans. Why, oh _why_ did Junko have to choose _this_ day to elope with her boy-toy? And most of all, _why_ did the servant have to blurt it out so loud?

Things happened so fast afterwards. A sharp look from the clan head sent the leader of the shinobi out the towards, presumably to Junko, while the other three started towards Sai and Sakura.

Sai and Sakura jumped into action.

"I'll go after Junko and the leader, you get those three," Sai instructed, his henge form disappearing in a puff of smoke, much to the dismay of the clan head.

"I got it," Sakura nodded, her own kimono sliced with one swift motion and her own, pink hair back on her head as the henge dropped and her gloves went on.

Standing behind her, Mara couldn't keep the gasp from escaping. Turning around, Sakura advised, "It'll be a good idea if you stay back and get the rest of the servants to safety."

Mara nodded and scampered to safety, still obviously caught in disbelief. Sakura turned and smiled grimly at the charging ninja.

She couldn't wait to sink her knuckles into someone's nose.

* * *

**a/n: **Yay for finally updating! Bleh, I've been sick with the flu and busy with summatives, sorry about the lateness. Not much to say this time, things should be unraveling pretty obviously.

**Edit 12/31/07: **Spelling/grammar finally corrected!

Enjoy!


	16. The Petals Fall

A**nother First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 16: The Petals Fall**

* * *

Sakura's fist just went through someone's nose, and in the split second that her knuckles were embedding themselves in the man's nose, she remembered.

_Ah,_ she candidly thought, as she felt the cartilage of his nose compress and finally break apart under the pressure of her fist, _this is how it feels like. _

_I remember now._

_How long has it been since I've punched someone like this? Was it that time when Genma touched my butt? No, Sasuke wasn't even back then, and _he_ would have been the one to punch Genma. Was it that time Kakashi forgot to feed my rabbit and it died? No wait, I think Ino was the one who forgot to feed my poor rabbit; I punched Kakashi because he had the nerve to announce to the whole pub that I had four different STDs and was pregnant on top of that. _

_Oh, pregnancy, how you evade me now!_

_Hey, hey, it isn't time to be melodramatic now!_

_Anyways, maybe it was that time when Naruto kissed me, right in front of Sasuke. Hmm, Hinata was still with Kiba at that time, wasn't she? And I think Sai said that the kiss was artistically horrifying._

_Wait a second. Maybe it was Sai that I punched._

And then that split second passed, Sakura's fist retracted itself, and things moved rapidly again.

Punch. Duck. Kick. Spin. Duck. Backhand. Growl. Kick. Punch twice. Twist. Duck. Evade. Uppercut. Kick. Growl.

Observe.

Of the three men she was simultaneously trying to fight, it was obvious early on that one was much stronger than the other two.

The two weaker ones, whom she had already dubbed "Thick" and "Thicker" for reasons soon to be made clear, were probably high chuunins or possibly a very, _very_ new jounin. They reminded her of the shinobi of the Akimichi clan. Except the ones from the Akimichi clan were a lot _nicer_-looking than these two – these ones looked like they came from the street corners that civilian mothers were always telling their young, delicate daughters to avoid.

You know, _those_ corners.

Either way, these men were stout and heavily muscled; one had a shiny burn mark on his left forearm. The shorter, stouter one had thick, brown eyebrows. Sakura would have shaken her head in distaste if it wasn't for the fact that doing so would have caused her hair to fall into her eyes, and that would block her vision, and she _definitely_ couldn't have her vision obscured _now_.

The stronger one was probably an elite jounin, or close to it. He didn't seem to be fighting at his fullest potential, something that worried Sakura because three-on-one was bad enough, but her chakra reserves weren't as vast as Naruto's and would be prone to running out if too much time passed. If any one of them were alone, she was absolutely positive that she would be able to take them on, even the strongest one, but now, the three of them were slowly sapping at her chakra reserves and she was certain that when the time was right, the stronger one would no doubt show his true potential and take advantage of her weakened state to kill her.

Or worse, but Sakura preferred to think positively.

* * *

"Junko-san, are you sure this is a good time to leave?" The man speaking was obviously worried and just about out of breath from running.

"Actually, it's probably the worse time I could have picked," Junko admitted, squeezing the hand within hers tighter. "But it was an opportunity, a time when I was just about completely unwatched. I couldn't let it go."

"Junko…" Tatsuya began, hesitating. "When daimyo-sama finds out you've gone off with me, he'll be so angry. You'll be disowned for sure. Are you positive that-"

"Questioning my sincerity already?" Junko interrupted, glancing back briefly at the man running along slightly behind her.

He looked alarmed and shook his other hand wildly, saying, "Not at all, not at all!" His blue eyes softened as he continued. "I just want you to clearly think about what you're doing, Junko. This is the rest of your life that we're talking about. I don't want you to regret anything. It would kill me if you become unhappy now."

She smiled.

"This has got to be the best choice I've ever made, Tatsuya-kun," she softly said. "And it's the _only_ choice that I've ever made for myself."

Looking past her shoulder at Tatsuya once again, Junko laughed and said, "So don't you go questioning this choice of mine, okay?"

He returned the smile, running with more vigor.

"Okay."

* * *

Sai could _not_believe how quickly the situation had unraveled on him. He just _could not_ believe it. This had to go down in the history of moments-that-are-best-not-remembered, because he could not remember the last time his meticulously planned strategies had been ruined,_just like that_, by a young and air-headed eighteen-year-old woman.

Well, fine. They weren't only _his_ meticulously planned strategies – Sakura hadn't graduated at the top of her class for nothing and her quick thinking was prized almost as much as Shikamaru's undeniable genius. And Junko was certainly a young, eighteen-year-old woman, but she was definitely not air-headed.

In fact, if Sai were to be truly honest to himself, he knew that Junko had chosen a very good time to run away with her lover. It was just because of the fact that Junko had chosen a good time for _herself_ that it made things troublesome for _him._

It didn't help things that the enemy nin he was chasing was already very much out of sight and Sai could only navigate through the thick underbrush by picking up the man's chakra signature.

And to top things off, Sai couldn't help but feel a little worried about Sakura. True, she was a fabulous kunoichi, but three-on-one battle wasn't exactly something she had done before. She was a jounin in her own right, but missions were always completed in three-man cells and she spent most of her time in the hospital anyway. Only ANBU did solitary missions, and Sakura hadn't been officially instated into ANBU yet. Of course, she had beaten up Naruto, Kakashi, and himself simultaneously on more than one occasion, but that didn't really count, since it was all in good fun. Most of the time.

Fighting to keep the expression on his face neutral, Sai began to piece together a new plan.

He needed to locate Junko and her man, hopefully before the other nin did. If he got lucky and found them first, they would hightail back to the estate and then he would capture the other shinobi for questioning.

Without breaking his fast pace, Sai reached into his pouch and whipped out an empty scroll and a brush.

With things deteriorating this fast, it would be best to get word out to the _real_ daimyo in Konoha before he heard the news from another source.

* * *

The thing about fighting someone you have never fought against is that you can't depend on the fighting style that you usually use.

Sakura fought one way with Tsunade, another way with Naruto, yet another with Kakashi, another with Sasuke, and another with Sai. Because each of them were so different from each other, it made sense to adapt her fighting style to maximize any advantages she might have had over them and minimize any disadvantages on her own part.

But this adaptation took time. A lot of it. It wasn't exactly something Sakura could do while there were three kicks, three fists and two kunai from three different people coming at her from three different directions all at the same time.

She had always been an observant one, but with only one pair of eyes and three rapidly moving targets, things got a little hairy.

_There's no other way around it_, Sakura thought grimly, her mouth set in a determined line. _I've got to take one out at a time. Let's start with Thick._

It would be reasonably easy to take him out, Sakura knew. Even with the other two raining down blows at her, it should be alright. None of them had used any ninjutsu yet, which certainly implied that they were either not very proficient at it or they were conserving their attacks and waiting for her to reveal her own skills first.

_Well,_ Sakura thought_, if they're waiting for me to start the ninjutsu, they're gonna be a little disappointed._

Ninjutsu had never been her strong point. But she was a solid taijutsu master.

In a second she had turned all her attacks on the shorter guy with the thick brows. The man appeared very surprised and was obviously struggling, trying to keep up with her chakra-enhanced speed and strength. It was clear that all three men were surprised that such a small woman could be the source of so much hidden strength. The other two men continued to launch themselves at her, but Sakura managed to deftly steer her main fight into the way of the other two – the taller men couldn't get a clear hit on her unless they were willing to risk also injuring their comrade, and it seemed to her that they were _not_ willing to do so.

_Ha, that's what you get for messing with Haruno Sakura, _she gleefully thought, as a chakra-enhanced fist went into his nose for a second time, knocking the man clear off his feet and into the opposite wall. He actually went _through_ the wall and into the next room, crashing into who-knows-what. When no other noise was heard, Sakura assumed he was knocked out.

_One down, two to go,_ Sakura mentally cheered herself on.

The taller man with a shiny burn on his arm roared and launched himself even more furiously at her, enraged by the fact that this small woman had easily defeated his teammate.

Sakura smirked – this was turning to work out nicely. She had learned early on that while being emotional while fighting could lend a ninja extra power through adrenaline, it also tended to blind a ninja from seeing the larger picture of a situation. If this kept up, his man would undoubtedly start making mistakes, giving her more openings to attack cleanly.

The elite enemy jounin's attacks had also seemed to slow down and falter – Sakura assumed this was because he had finally seen what she was capable of and wanted to conserve his energy to fight her one-on-one later. She couldn't see how this would benefit him, but then again, perhaps he thought her current fight would tire her out enough that regardless if she won or lost, he would be able to take her out easily when he entered the fray again.

Sakura had no intention of letting the fight drag on. And she had no intention of losing either.

Haruno Sakura had already lost a lot in her life. Trivial things, important things, things that caused her to change – if there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was losing. So there was no way in hell she was going to lose _this_ fight.

* * *

Looking back, Junko remembers that everything happened really fast. One moment, she and Tatsuya were running towards freedom, and then all of a sudden the world seemed to cave in upon itself and all she could do was watch as trees crumbled and birds screeched and Tatsuya groaned and fell.

And her confused mind couldn't comprehend anything that was going on, because it seemed as if reality itself had been warped and she was a helpless bystander.

She vaguely remembered muscled arms roughly hauling her up by the waist and then fast, fast sprinting.

But the thing that stood out the most to her was the image of Tatsuya's blue eyes looking up at her from the mossy forest ground, unable to do anything but watch as his love got forcibly taken right in front of him.

And then Junko's world went black.

Tatsuya, on the other hand, will tell you of the sheer terror that coursed through his body as he watched the burly ninja run off with Junko. The blue-eyed man might have been a strong man, being a commoner and used to heavy work, but he knew the difference between being strong and being a shinobi – ninja were trained to _kill_ without batting an eyelash, while he was trained to…build houses.

It was an entire chasm that he couldn't span across. There was no way he could have aided in the situation at all. Of course, that was already assuming he wasn't rooted to the ground in his position, like he had been. The genjutsu that the enemy ninja had weaved had been near flawless, leaving him nearly writhing on the ground in pain while Junko, his true target, had been swiftly taken away. While the pain wasn't strong enough to knock him out or leave him screaming, it was definitely enough to paralyze him, if only for a short while.

The next thing Tatsuya will tell you is that the genjutsu began to wear off after half a minute – which is a true testament to exactly how fast everything had happened, how fast every thought had raced through the lovers' minds as the events had unfolded.

He was soon up on his feet again, cringing slightly when the aftershocks of the pain continued to course through his body, but otherwise relatively unharmed. But though he could still stand, could still move, he had _no idea_ where the man had taken Junko. He had no directional sense to speak of, and his eyes had been trained solely on Junko's frightened ones when he was on the ground, so he hadn't gotten a clear sense of which direction they headed off in.

It was then that Sai finally broke through the underbrush, seeing only the slumped form of Tatsuya, and no Junko.

He sighed mentally – this complicated things beyond what he had liked. Sai stopped near Tatsuya, and quietly asked, "Did you get overrun by an enemy shinobi?"

The poor man could only nod in silence, still deeply shocked at what had just happened.

Sai opened his mouth to ask another question, but just a glance at the man's dilated pupils told him that it would be futile to try to extract information from him – he was too deeply in shock to comprehend anything at this point.

He turned to leave in the direction of the traces of chakra that the other shinobi had left behind, but suddenly remembered some words that Sakura had just about yelled at him during their last fight.

_"And you just expect me to lay around and let her get hurt? That's just as bad as the man who calls himself her brother." _

_"What would your brother say if he heard what you just said?"_

Sai snorted internally. _Protect the innocents, huh? That's what she was always going on and on about, wasn't she?_

He cursed his developing conscience, seeing as that annoying little voice (which began to sound more and more like Sakura as the days with her went on) now insisted it would be terrible to leave Tatsuya alone like this.

Sai made an ink clone and turned to the blue-eyed man.

"Listen here. This clone will take you back to your house safely, alright? Just follow him and you'll be fine."

When he was met with a blank stare as a response, Sai resisted the urge to slap his forehead. Turning to his clone, he said, "Just carry him on your back. His family runs that small building company; I've checked it out before, so you should know where it is."

With a quick salute, the clone swiftly hefted the man onto its back and disappeared in a flash, racing through the trees.

_Right, time to get back on track,_ Sai thought, as he concentrated on finding the last remaining traces of the chakra trail he had been following.

He would follow them, defeat the ninja, get Junko back, and return to Sakura with a clean conscience.

And then they would talk. Sai would make sure of that.

* * *

_Two down, one to go!_ Sakura crowed silently, as the man she had been fighting with received a beautiful and well-aimed punch to the end, causing his eyes to cross and slowly close as he fell with a crash onto the table.

_Hmm, he cracked that pretty pink china,_ Sakura absent-mindedly mused as she turned to the last man.

His arms were crossed and his sharp brown eyes were surveying her critically. Sakura raised a chin up and stated, "Haruno Sakura. And you are?"

The man smirked – after withdrawing and watching the fight rather than participating, he concluded that this petite female really _was_ something. Something worth knowing his name and rank, at least.

"Ikuta Ken. Jounin." He emphasized the last word in a subtle threat, as if he was trying to get across to her how powerful he was.

Sakura snorted. Egotistical men like this Ikuta Ken were exactly the type of men she hated. In fact, the only egotistical men she tolerated were her boys, but that was only because they let her hit them when their antics went too far.

"Right. Got a motive for this?" Sakura breezily asked, gesturing with a gloved hand towards all the destroyed furniture and hangings in the main hall.

Ikuta laughed.

"That was all thanks to you, wasn't it?"

"It was because of you and your men that I had to resort to that," Sakura shrugged. "And you still haven't answered my question."

He looked at her like she was stupid. "Look, I don't know what kind of high-and-mighty village you might come from, but when you don't got no affiliation, you do anything to survive. And in this day and time, you need money to survive."

Everything came down to money now, didn't it? Sakura could have shaken her head at the sheer unfairness of the world, but then again, since when had things ever been fair?

"So you're not some pseudo-Akatsuki type who wants to take over the world, right?" Sakura tentatively asked – she wasn't sure whether this broke protocol or not, chatting so amiably with an enemy, but if this man's man nose was going to be broken by her fist sooner or later, she might as well get the last bit of information she could muster from him.

Ikuta laughed again – not a chilling, evil sound like something Orochimaru might have produced back in the day, but still enough for her to raise her figurative hackles.

"The Akatsuki were stupid," he growled. "Don't compare me with them."

Sakura beamed. "Excellent."

And then was no need for words, but a kunai whipped out to deflect three incoming shuriken, and Sakura launched herself into heated battle once again.

* * *

Junko's eyes opened slowly. Blearily she looked around and blinked, her mind still muddled from the genjutsu that had been placed upon her.

And then everything clicked.

"LET. ME. GO!" she roared, kicking desperately at her captor, who stumbled slightly in surprise. The woman had a magnificent set of lungs – but then again, women were generally able to expand upon their normal vocal functionalities when they were in dire situations. And this certainly counted as a dire situation.

"Shut up, stupid woman," he grunted, not breaking his run at all.

"I'm NOT stupid, you buffoon," Junko growled, indignant to the core.

The man rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm not a buffoon."

Junko ignored him and continued to struggle, but his arms were like steel bands, keeping her tightly in his grasp. After a short while she realized something was off about the way he was holding her.

"GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY BUTT!!!" she screeched, utterly horrified that she hadn't noticed it before.

"Hey, hey, my hands are clean!" It was the man's turn to be indignant.

Tears of anger and humiliation began to develop in her eyes. This was _not_ the way things were supposed to turn out. _Why_ did things have to turn out this way? Here she was, supposed to be happily running away from home with her love, but instead she was trapped in the filthy grasp of a pervert.

She was going to scream again when all of a sudden, her captor's grip loosened and he fell, sending Junko toppling onto the hard ground. Looking around frantically for the cause of his fall but finding nothing as of yet, her gaze fell to the man.

His eyes were rolled to the back of his head, showing only the whites, and he was frothing at the mouth; he seemed to be having a convulsion.

Junko shuddered in distaste. She was already feeling light-headed and she was certain that she would faint now.

"Hm. It worked better than I thought it would," a voice suddenly appeared to her left.

Junko shrieked in surprise and jumped up, adrenaline clearing her foggy mind in an instant.

Sai held up his hands. "It's just me. I'm here to help you."

"Oh," Junko breathed, dropping to the ground in relief. As she sat, Sai securely tied up the rogue nin and created another ink clone.

"Okay, take this guy back to Konoha and report to the Hokage for me. Tell her we'll be back shortly," Sai ordered. His clone did as he said, gone before Junko's breathing had returned to normal.

"Now," he began, turning towards the woman on the ground. "get on my back. We're going back."

Junko blanched. "B-but…Tatsuya-kun-"

"Is fine," Sai interrupted. "He's on his way home as we speak. I had another clone help him. He's in shock, but other than that he's fine. Now just do as I say and get on."

Junko huffed but did as she was told, climbing clumsily onto his back.

"Alright. Hold on."

And he sped off.

_Sakura._

* * *

As she dodged five senbon, nimbly hanging onto to the crystal chandelier, Sakura wondered how angry the daimyo would be once he found out his house had been flooded, burned, and covered with a mudslide twice just about ten minutes ago. It was not a pleasant thought at all, but still – she didn't want this to come out of their paycheck.

Their fight had started with ninjutsu – not Sakura's best area of fighting, but since she had trained with Sai she could honestly say she was much, much better now.

Still, it became obvious soon that her opponent was a water-type user, so an earth-type user like herself was at a terrible disadvantage – any dirt she might hurl at him would soon get turned into mud and be used against her.

She still persevered, and to her luck, his chakra seemed to be running out. However, it was just her luck that her own chakra seemed to be reaching its limits as well. The two of them were down to fighting with steel and fists now, neither of them having enough chakra to risk trying to do ninjutsu or genjutsu.

"You," he panted, as he shied away from her iron fists, "were a lot better than I expected."

Sakura smirked, although her tiredness showed. "I could say the same for you."

Internally, her mind was racing to find a way to draw this battle to a close – the way things were going, both of them would drop down from chakra depletion before a clear conclusion could be achieved. They were just too evenly matched – even with Sakura's expertise in taijutsu, this ninja was simply too experienced to go down that easily.

Her thoughts wandered to two separate incidents – two different ninja who had had to fight an enemy who was on par with, or beyond their own skill level. Two separate incidents in which the odds were against those ninja. Two different situations, but one common solution.

She knew what to do now.

She let go of the chandelier.

His sword slid cleanly into her flesh; his face carried his shock at her sudden opening.

And then he was close enough for her to grab him by the shoulders, the sword tearing half the ligaments in her injured arm along the way, but he was finally close enough.

With a fist infused with her last remaining bit of chakra, she landed a sharp and deadly uppercut on him.

She heard a crack and he fell.

She smiled.

_I won._

Her eyes closed; her body hit the ground hard, a sharp contrast to the way the sakura petals outside drifted lazily to the ground like a pink dream.

* * *

**a/n:** Yatta!!! I made it for the New Years' deadline that I had imposed upon myself!

And this was an EXTRA long chapter, to make up for my yucky lateness and such. Hmm, what to say...well, homework's being a pain, I've been away a lot, and I'm going to get fat from all the Christmas feasting. But it's all good. Again, this chapter is unbetaed (although I finally fixed up the last chapter :P), so please leave a comment and correct any mistakes I might have made!

And cookies to those who can figure out exactly which two shinobi Sakura was thinking about when she decided to resort to her last plan - allowing harm to come to oneself in order to reach your opponent. I was looking at two CANON events that happened PRE-TIMESKIP :) (big hint there!)

On another note, I have **changed my homepage**. I have created a new LiveJournal account dedicated solely to fanfiction - that's my new website, go to my **profile **to check it out. Again, I update there more regularly and more quickly, so be sure to check there first if you're impatient for something :D

Last thing: **HAPPY NEW YEARS** to everyone! I wish everyone a year full of happiness and personal success in anything and everything you might do!

Enjoy!


	17. Nascence

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Chapter 17: Nascence**

* * *

Sai and Junko were met with bits of debris, sticky mud and absolute silence.

The sight of such destruction still unnerved him slightly, although he had to fight to keep a small smile off his face – the mess was a clear sign Sakura got to throw her weight around a little bit.

"Onii-sama is going to throw a fit," Junko murmured, her eyes wide from shock at the sight of a large part of her home in such disarray.

"Well, he kind of asked for it," Sai replied tonelessly. "When shinobi enter the picture, things generally turn out messier than expected."

Unhooking his arms from the backs of her thighs, Sai allowed Junko to slowly slide down before swiftly entering the estate through the caved-in ceiling.

Inside was just as magnificently destroyed as the front lawn – mud coated the walls, tables and chairs were wildly positions all around the place and entire walls had been torn apart.

In the midst of all the chaos was pink, _pink, pinkpinkpink-_

_Sakura!_

Rushing over, he saw with no small amount of relief that she was still breathing. Blood was still sluggishly running down her forearm, coating a good portion of her torso with a rusty red – it wasn't very long ago that Sakura collapsed.

Quickly, Sai lifted her up in his arms as gently as possible, finally catching sight of the shinobi down on the ground near her; by the impossible angle his neck was making, it was clear that Sakura had cleanly broken this guy's neck, killing him in the process. Sai was uncertain as to where the other two ninja were, but it was obvious they were down as well – Sakura never left a job half-done.

Dispatching another two clones to dispose of the body and locate the other two, Sai made to exit the house but remembered the young woman he had just brought back.

"Stay here and wait," he said, turning around to face Junko. "Konoha will send someone over soon. Sakura needs a medic, fast."

Without waiting for a reply, he disappeared in a teleportation jutsu with Sakura safely tucked in his hold.

_Don't let go._

* * *

Sakura was floating.

The sky was pastel and there was a field of paper flowers and Sakura was floating.

_Ah_, Sakura thought. _I see._

She had been fighting, hadn't she? And then the only way she could have won the fight was by allowing herself to get stabbed and then taking advantage of the split-second opening that would create. Yes, she remembered now.

And it had worked too, hadn't it? Yes, she remembered hearing a crack before he had gone down – there was no way he would live with a neck broken in _that_ place.

Strange – she didn't feel guilty about this death at all. Looking down at her hands, she didn't see blood staining them, like she so often saw after other missions. Her hands were soft and supple, her nails showing the healthy condition of her body.

Was she becoming more jaded? Would she end up like Kakashi, and all those other tired ANBU whose lives had become an endless sky of blood-red?

No, that wasn't it.

She felt no guilt – what she felt was sadness.

He had said so, hadn't he? That all he wanted was to survive. It just so happened that his way of surviving collided with _her_ way of survival. That's all there was to it.

And it just _clicked_.

There were no _bad_ or _good_ shinobi, per se. There are ideas and thoughts and dreams and wishes, morals and beliefs and different ways of thinking. There's no such thing as hopelessness, because hope is only hope if you have faith in it. There are no unhappy endings because you are the only one who can decide whether you are happy or unhappy in the end.

In other words, it's just a choice.

Sakura could choose to angst and be guilty over every death she has ever caused. But she could also choose to just quietly mourn those who had died and remember that she is a kunoichi of Konoha.

Sakura could choose to let happiness just come along, but she could also reach out and grasp her own happiness.

She could beat herself up over the fact that she still went down during this battle, that she still wasn't _strong_ enough, but she could also open her eyes and realize that strength wasn't about winning all the fights.

Because it isn't.

Strength and skill are different. Skill is dexterity, agility, adaptability and any other positive adjective someone might be able to think up. Skill is learned and practiced and honed and perfected. Skill is hitting the mark nine times out of ten.

Strength isn't like that.

Strength is getting up when you fall. It's never letting yourself settle for second-best. It's becoming the best that _you_ can be. It's loving yourself for who you are.

_I am strong._

Sakura never lied to herself, and now she dances upon the field of paper flowers.

Her feet touch the ground now.

* * *

When Sakura first opened her eyes, the room was blurred and she had to blink several times before everything came into focus.

The empty darkness of the room stirred up nostalgia within her – wasn't it just about a year ago that she also woke up to an empty hospital room, all alone?

She yawned and stretched, noticing how her arm had been completely healed – the absence of a scar told her that it was probably Tsunade or maybe Shizune who had healed her.

She smiled.

The hard, plastic chair that was usually placed in the back of hospital rooms had been moved to her bedside, right up close to her pillow. Sakura idly wondered if anyone had sat there while she had been out.

There was a duffle bag on top of the thin covers; it opened to reveal some clothes. Sakura's smile grew wider – she knew there was a good reason why she worked so hard to keep her friends happy.

She slowly pulled on the pair of black tights and light blue sundress that had been present in the bag – it was obviously Hinata who had packed the bag for her, seeing as only Ino and the shy Byakugan-user understood her taste in fashion. She was finishing strapping on the shuriken holster also in the bag to her thigh, underneath the dress, when the door slid open quietly.

Sakura looked up.

"Sasuke…"

The black-haired man offered her a slight, almost-not-there smile.

"Let me walk you."

She nodded. "Okay."

* * *

Sai dabbed gently at the canvas he was working on. The details of the painting were tiring, back-breaking work, but it helped take his mind off things.

Tsunade had finally kicked him out of Sakura's room after three days of moping around her bedside.

"Take a shower, get some food and some sleep before coming back here!" Tsunade had yelled while bodily dragging him out of the room and throwing him out into the hallway.

As he got up, Tsunade had turned around and said, "Actually, don't come back at all! You've gone three days without sleep and you just ran fifty miles back to Konoha while holding up four shadow clones, and I don't need you to collapse from chakra depletion as well. Don't you _dare_ step foot into the hospital until I say so, Sai!"

"Hokage-sama," Sai started, "but, Sakura-"

"Shut up," Tsunade irritably said. "You'll be the first to know when she wakes up."

And that had been the end of that.

They were orders he couldn't disobey, so he had gone home, gotten a shower, went down to eat a bowl of ramen, and come back up to his empty apartment. While unpacking his bag he had come across several unfinished sketches that he had wanted to paint.

Sai almost let out a breath as he put down the brush.

_She better wake soon._

* * *

"Thanks for picking me up," Sakura started, as she and Sasuke began walking down the crowded streets of Konoha.

Sasuke shrugged. "Actually, everyone else wanted to come to, but I convinced them that I needed to talk to you."

Sakura sent a sidelong glance to him. "You didn't pull Chidori on them, did you?"

He snorted.

Sakura took that as a no. "Ah, I get it. You used the Sharingan on them." She nodded wisely as she spoke.

Sasuke didn't say anything. After several minutes of silence, Sakura began to notice that he wasn't walking in the direction that led back to her apartment.

"Hey Sasuke, my place is _that_ way…" she trailed off when she noticed that he wasn't listening. Sighing, she followed him anyway, wondering what had gotten into him.

"Why were you so insistent on picking me up anyway?" she asked, curious for answers. It had been quite a long time since she had even spoken to Sasuke – things had been strained, to put it nicely, since they had broken up.

"Some…_things_ I wanted to clear up between us," he said. Turning to finally meet her gaze, he continued.

"I never got a chance to say I'm sorry," he quietly said. "So…I'm sorry."

Sakura sighed, looking away from him to look at the clouds above. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Sasuke continued as if he hadn't heard her. "I'm sorry I went and got myself, _and_ you, into such a big mess. I just want you to know that I didn't go out looking for a woman that night – I just needed to get a drink, and then things sort of got…fuzzy."

Sakura couldn't help but smile a little bit – Sasuke was just so funny and _awkward_ whenever he tried to apologize for something.

"And…" he hesitated slightly, just enough for her to pick up on it. "I'm sorry that I left you alone when you were in such a vulnerable state. I honestly didn't know what to do, and by the time I was sober again you were gone."

Sakura turned to face him once again. "I forgave you a long time ago, Sasuke."

Sasuke smiled slightly. "I know. I just needed you to know that I was sorry."

She laughed and resisted the urge to mess up his hair – it would destroy his ego more than apologizing to her would have.

"You know you'll always be a brother to me, right?" she asked, stopping to place a hand on his shoulder.

Sasuke nodded. Handing her the duffle bag, which he had been graciously holding throughout their stroll, he rubbed the back of his head thoughtfully.

"And just so you know, I know where you live." Reaching into his pocket, he lifted up his hand to show her the house key she had given him. "I still have this, remember? I just thought you should know that someone else has been sitting at your bedside for three days straight until Tsunade kicked him out."

He pointed behind her.

They were standing in front of Sai's apartment.

Sakura turned back to him. "Sasuke…"

Sasuke nodded, giving her a little push on the shoulder. "Go on. I've cleared things up with you, and now it's your turn to clear things up with him."

"How-?"

"I've known you long enough to be able to read you, Sakura," he said, shaking his head. "Even if I haven't seen you in a long time, I know exactly what was going on during that mission."

Sakura flushed slightly, but smiled. "Thanks, Sasuke."

He turned around, hands still stuck in his pockets – a pose reminiscent of the days at the Academy when they were still naïve little kids. Sakura watched as his back disappeared into the bustling crowd before turning to the apartment in front of her.

_Alright. Here goes nothing._

* * *

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"What are you doing here?"

Sakura scowled. "Hey, won't you let me in first?"

Sai wordlessly moved aside to admit his pink-haired visitor. She threw her duffle bag to the side and yawned, stretching out her cramped muscles again. Sai closed the door and crossed his arms, leaning on a wall.

"I thought you were still in the hospital."

"I_was_, but Sasuke-kun was nice enough to walk me here," Sakura said cheerfully.

_Didn't Tsunade-sama say I would be the first to know when she woke up…?_ Sai couldn't help but feel a stab of annoyance and something else at the thought.

"Hm. I see." Sai uncrossed his arms and walked back to his canvas, sat down, and began to paint again.

The smile slid off Sakura's face and she began to scowl again.

"Hey, is that all you have to say?" she asked, stomping over to his side.

"Not really," he answered. Sakura bit back a retort, choosing instead to take a peek at what he was painting.

"Sai…" she breathed.

It was her.

"I…remember that night," she quietly said. "We had camped near a stream, and you told me to take a bath because you said I smelled."

Sai put his brush and palette down. He slowly got up from his stool.

"You get it now, don't you?" he asked, running a hand through his mussed hair. "See, I-"

His hands grasped her shoulders, as if trying to make her understand something.

"Sakura, I-"

A finger went to his lips to silence him.

"It's alright," she whispered. "I understand. It's fine this way. It's all I need."

And then she kissed him.

_She_ kissed _him_, and he remembered.

It was his turn to remember as her smell, her warmth, her _presence_ permeated his entire being.

They fit against each other – he was taller and she was all gentle curves and sharp hipbones but they fit just right.

When they broke apart, Sakura's arms were curved around his neck and his hands were resting on her waist.

"I…" he hesitantly started. "I've never done anything like this before."

She smiled. "It's alright. You've got to start somewhere."

"I say the wrong things a lot of the time," he continued.

She laughed. "I know. I'll just have to hit you until you stop."

"It's okay like this?" he asked, because he was still uncertain and so much more vulnerable than he thought he would ever be.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

Her green eyes shine softly and her smile was small but genuine.

He believed her, and when their lips met again, he knew things would change for the better this time – this brand-new first time for the both of them.

* * *

a/n: Ahhhh...

Well, that's it for **Another First Time**.

Yeah. Not joking. But I might put up an epilogue...honestly, you guys won't believe me, but I have like, 4 different versions of an epilogue somewhere on my hard drive XD

Again, I'm very sorry for the rather late update, but it's exam period (ohgosh3summativesduetmrwah!) and it's been stressful. Although I have to admit that I've mostly been procrastinating and in denial about the whole situation. It's like, I KNOW that I have a whole crapload of work to do in an unreasonable time limit (English teacher, long story) but all this time I'm just like, "Lalalala I don't hear anything..."

Anyways, I really want to thank all my readers who have taken the time to read this story in the first place, who didn't give up on me even with my ridiculously sparse updates and stupid spelling mistakes, and who have left me very encouraging comments and critique. I love you all :) Thanks again!

On a closing note, my fic journal is now open for **REQUESTS**. I will take just about any het pairing and perhaps a few specific yaoi pairings - just drop me a comment **(link is my homepage at my profile)** and we'll go from there. If you comment annonymously, please at least provide me with your fanfiction penname - I really would like to know who you are :D

Enjoy!


	18. Epilogue

**Another First Time**

* * *

**Epilogue: A Day in the Life Of the Mister and Missus**

* * *

There were a lot of things to be cleared up, of course. 

Mission debriefing had to happen, and then lots of haggling over missions costs and such, and with the daimyo involved, it was certainly going to be a headache-inducing event.

Even so, nothing could ruin Sakura's happy mood at being home again – while it had been nice to live in the lap of luxury, Sakura could honestly say she had no desire to be mixed up with the affairs of the rich and influential anymore. It was just too stressful and utterly_pointless_.

A week after Sakura and Sai returned to Konoha though, a letter addressed to the two shinobi came from Junko. She relayed to them the happy news of the cancellation of her engagement, as well as her new engagement to her lover. Official news of Kanako's pregnancy came with it as well.

But for Sakura, not even _that_ could compare with the happiness she had found with Sai, and within herself. It was truly amazing how a different perspective on the same things could have such a large change on her outlook – now that she had found a peace within herself, it was so much easier to wake up to a new day and not feel weighted down with insecurities.

Of course, that isn't to say that Sakura didn't have her insecurities – after all, calling a man as gorgeous and talented as Sai your boyfriend could be quite intimidating at times. While things weren't as quite as bad as they were with Sasuke, who was, and would always remain, the talk of the village, there were still times when Sakura wondered if Sai would leave for someone better-looking and more talented than she was.

On Sai's end, he wondered when she would leave him for someone more charismatic and tactful – after all, even _he_ knew that he crossed unspoken lines on a daily basis.

Obviously, the fledgling couple had a _lot_ to learn about love, and still _quite_ a lot to learn about each other.

But they had time.

Shinobi as they were, they still had time.

---

"Pass me that green, will you?"

"This one?"

"No no, _that_ one over there."

"…there isn't a difference."

"Yes there is."

"I swear there isn't."

"I'm telling you, there _is_, but you just can't see it."

"Are you calling me colour blind?"

"…no."

"…bastard."

---

"Come on, let's eat."

"Ramen again?"

"Don't like it? Go cook yourself."

"…"

"Don't look at me like that."

"Isn't ramen supposed to be very unhealthy? You call yourself a medic-nin?"

"Shishou is Fire Country's most sought-after medic-nin as _well_ as our Hokage, and she drinks at least seven bottles of sake a day when the recommended serving size is one cup a day."

"…she's not you."

"No, she's not. That's just to prove that I can eat unhealthy things even though I'm a perfectly capable medic-nin."

"…I'm bored of ramen."

"Tough luck, pretty boy."

---

"When I said that I hated ramen, I didn't mean for you to destroy my kitchen."

"I didn't _destroy_ it. I mean, come on, your sink is still intact, and your stove still mostly works."

"Hmm…that's true."

"…"

"Pass me the soy sauce, will you?"

"…_damn_, I knew I forgot to put salt."

---

"Touch me there again and I'll knock your head off."

"…"

"Stop looking so confused. It's annoying me."

"But Naruto-kun said-"

"Don't listen to anything the moron says, especially about women and how to get into their pants."

"But Kakashi-sensei gave me this-"

"_Icha Icha_, right?"

"…how did you know?"

"I_grew up_ with that guy as my teacher, don't you think I'd know about his habits?"

"Hmm, that's true."

---

"I'm back."

"Welcome home. You got your first genin team today, didn't you?"

"Yes. But for some reason, the boy kept glaring at me and the two girls were very friendly until I told them that flattery was unattractive."

"Well_duh_, you were being a bastard again."

"…I was?"

"Those girls just probably had a crush on you. I mean, look at yourself! You shouldn't be surprised."

"I see. And how would you know that?"

"I'm a girl too."

"Ah, I see. Personal experience. Wait a second. Did you ever…?"

"…"

"Sakura…"

"Shut up and eat."

---

"Chuunin exams are tomorrow."

"I know. I'm an examiner. Genjutsu."

"I heard. I wonder if any of my kids are going to die."

"Is that your way of saying you care, or are you just a cynical bastard?"

"…I'm not sure."

"…let's just say you care. It'll make them feel better."

---

"Tenten got cheated on."

"Hmm, really?"

"Yeah. Neji and Lee are out for blood."

"I can imagine."

"It's quite funny watching them, actually. Well, after you get over the fact that one of your best friends got cheated on."

"You're quite the sympathetic one, Sakura."

"Don't be a bastard."

"I'm not."

"I know."

"…you look worried."

"…"

"I'd never cheat on you."

"I know. I'd kill you, bring you back, and kill you again."

"Sounds scary. So that Suna lady _did_teach you that jutsu."

"Don't be stupid. _I'd_ die if I did that, and then how would I be able to kill you?"

"Oh, right."

---

"I'm turning the lights off."

"I'd be able to get around even with the lights off, blindfolded, and with my hands tied behind my back."

"I know. It's just common courtesy."

"Oh. I see."

"You're hogging the sheets."

"I'm cold."

"I am too. Now give me some of the sheets."

"…fine."

---

And in a hundred different moments like these, Sai and Sakura lived.

* * *

**a/n: **Yes, darlings, that's the end. I know it's insanely short, but before you complain, I have to say that I rather like that ending. Well, everyone will have a different opinion. But I wanted to give the feel that Sakura and Sai are JUST BEGINNING. The end of this story is just the BEGINNING of their own story - sort of like how in Kurosagi, Sumiko-san says, "Even though the case is closed and the news and media have calmed down, the victim's family continues to live forever. For them, it is merely the beginning." 

Incidentally, WATCH _**KUROSAGI**_! It's so good, I finished it in 2 days. And it's only 11 episodes, and really worth watching. Plus, it has my darling Yamashita Tomohisa (YamaPi!) in it, and he's as awesome as he always is. I love that boy.

On to the story.

Well, **Another First Time** is officially over. I may be posting some other follow-up pieces soon, so please look out for that! It was actually very hard for me to come out with this, for some reason. In the end, I couldn't find a way to wrap it up nicely, so I decided to give tiny vignettes of how I imagine their life together. I hope it was satisfying and gave you all a taste of SaiSakura, my style ;)

Once again, I want to thank all the readers and reviewers who kept me going through the tough times, especially through that bout of writers' block and exams - without your support, I would have just given up. Thank you very much!

For those of you who might want to see what other pieces I've written for Naruto as well as my other beloved fandoms, please visit my homepage. It's the beginning of the semester, I'm not too busy right now, and my muse seems to be cooperative, so if you wish, you could drop me a line requesting a one-shot or two and I'll try to get around to it ;) Go to my homepage to see more details about that!

And for the 18th time, and hopefully not the last, please enjoy!


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